Aiken puts hiccup behind her

QUEENSLAND Firebirds star Romelda Aiken (right) believes in the adage that you are only as good as your last game.

So she enters tonight’s Suncorp Super Netball season-opener against the Sunshine Coast Lightning at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre with a point to prove.

Aiken is a three-time MVP, three-time championship winner and the most prolific shooter in trans-Tasman competition history, the only woman to break the 5000-goal barrier.

But the normally cool, calm, collected and deadly accurate Jamaican had a fullblown case of the yips in the 2016 ANZ Championship grand final win over the NSW Swifts.

Aiken had a selfconfessed shocker as she hit 63 shots from 89 attempts (71 per cent), compared with the 86 per cent success rate she enjoyed throughout the season.

The misses from pointblank range included airballs, failed basketball lay-ups and shots that clunked into the underside of the ring.

But Aiken did hit the shots that counted with the final two goals in double overtime to hand the Firebirds a 69-67 victory. Coach Roselee Jencke lauded her courage for stepping up when it mattered.

Aiken returns to Boondall tonight and said memories of last year’s decider had driven her throughout the pre-season with motherly advice giving her perspective.

“I was talking to my mum afterwards and told her I had a really, really bad game but we won,’’ Aiken said. “Mum said it was like one bad game out of the 100 good ones that I’ve played so I shouldn’t be too harsh on myself.”

“I see this season as an opportunity to start with a clean slate.’’