Mystics warning: swats this space

Firebirds’ wing attack Chelsea Pitman ahead of today’s clash against the Fever.

YOU said it, Tracy – ‘‘Don’t you know, we’re talkin’ about a revolution.’’ Tracy Chapman’s classic hit seems a fitting theme for the Northern Mystics’ exploits in Melbourne last week.

Only, the Mystics didn’t ‘‘whisper’’ their radical lifting technique that could change the face of netball as we know it. Their innovation struck between the eyes, rumbled tectonic plates and rattled the trans-tasman competition; such was the shock and wide-spread awe it derived.

It was initiated at the defensive end with Anna ‘‘Hoist’’ Harrison’s long-limbed swats but now, Mystics shooters Maria Tutaia and Cathrine Latu are cooking up their own ‘‘invention’’.

Why should the defenders have all the fun and steal the glory? The envious pair protest, this is our show.

While the star shooters were tightlipped about their brewing secret, it’s thought they will, at some point this season, attempt an assisted alley-oop. The ambitious basketball style move would encompass three people – both shooters with Latu lifting Tutaia and a midcourt feeder needing to deliver the pin-point delivery – and have to be executed without touching the rim or net, to be legal. The attacking flamboyance is in the raw stages of refinement and is not likely to be as accurate or frequent as Harrison’s remarkable blocked shots, but, nevertheless, is sure to captivate similar wide-spread attention, when first sighted.

‘‘We are playing around with the game a little bit, trying to invent something new,’’ Tutaia confirmed. ‘‘We haven’t practised it properly. Let’s just say you’ll see it before the end of the season. ‘‘When it does happen it will have a better name than the chairlift. You’d have to be pretty gutsy to do this.’’ Unlike Chapman’s tunes, Tutaia wasn’t sure if the move would be a one-hit wonder. ‘‘If the opportunity arises more than once, then, maybe, but the timing has to be impeccable.

‘‘Who said it was a shot. It could be a pass or something else.’’

Latu hadn’t ruled out testing her lifting skills in Auckland today against the lastplaced Canterbury Tactix, who have just one win from eight games. If the score blows out late in the match, all eyes will be fixated with anticipation at the shooting end with Harrison’s deeds likely to be displayed from the outset.

‘‘It’s a work in progress, but you will see it,’’ Latu promised. ‘‘I couldn’t tell you when we plan to use it. We are trying to have fun with it. You’ll have to watch and wait to find out like the rest of the world. We need to win before we start thinking about that.’’

Harrison, meanwhile, urged other teams that adopt the defensive lift to keep within the spirit of the game. The lanky Silver Ferns defender is concerned some players may take it too far by being suspended the air for prolonged periods, or even sitting on team-mates’ shoulders to protect the goal.

‘‘Hopefully, there won’t be a change in the way we’re doing it. But the goal tending rule is very open at the moment. If players start holding each other up it could definitely change the game,’’ Harrison said. ‘‘You could sit on someone’s shoulders and swipe the ball away. There’s nothing in the rule book that says you can’t. But there’s no skill involved in that. There is a very big difference in my eyes.

‘‘It depends how teams start playing with this rule now it has been brought to light.

‘‘If it stays with people being lifted in the one movement then that’s fine. But it’s going to be interesting to see what path it takes.’’

The other yet-to-be-touched-on aspect are the increased injury concerns that come with lifting. Netball is evolving to a near full-contact sport. Combative, physical collisions are common place. Ankle and knee injuries are already prevalent. Now, where landing is taken out of one player’s control, the risks are clear.

‘‘The more someone lifts you above your normal jump height the more dangerous it becomes,’’ Harrison warned.