Blast players boost premier battle
SOUTHERN Blast players will join their premier A club teams tomorrow. The National Netball League team played its final game of the season last weekend, which means fit and healthy players are available for the Dunedin Netball competition. Round one kicked off last weekend with some big margins. A delayed start to the season due to Covid-19 has resulted in a shortened round one, which means the results of each game are important. All grades have been split into two pools and teams play three round robin games in their pools before a crossover match. Crossover games will be played on May 21, followed by promotion-relegation on May 24. Phys Ed B and Southern Magpies lead pool A after game one and Phys Ed A and College are at the top of pool B, all with four points. This week’s draw may present similar scores to last week or — after a tough first game — St Hilda’s, Taieri, South Pac and Phys Ed C could put up stronger opposition. In the first game of the day, Southern will play St Hilda’s, the only school team in the top grade. That will be followed by College and South Pac, and an interclub game between Phys Ed A and C. The day will end with Phys Ed B and Taieri. Taieri is the newest team in premier A, moving up after winning premier B last season. The club re-established in time for the 2018 season and the A team has been progressing through the grades since then. There were no Covid-19 match cancellations last week, a significant effort from all the clubs to field full teams and, at times, find last-minute replacements. The men’s premier competition continues on Monday nights and features four teams from College, Southern and two from South Pac. In the upcoming games, South Pac Titans Toroa will play the Southern Huskies and South Pac Titans Tui will face College.