Mystics seek own brand of magic
WHEN the trans-Tasman netball league season began, the Northern Mystics and Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic were tipped to be the top two New Zealand teams.
But after today’s elimination final in Hamilton, only one will be left standing, heading south to play the unbeaten Southern Steel in the New Zealand conference final.
Both teams made the finals despite having losing records. The Magic went 6-7 but the Mystics won just three times, drawing once and losing nine.
Making it to the finals is what matters, though, and now they are there, they are treating it like a second life, looking to put everything they have learnt through the season into practice, says midcourter Kayla Cullen.
‘‘We’ve lost games but we’ve only been losing by one or two. We’ve been leading most of the way, then in the last quarter we just fall off, so although we don’t win, it’s not necessarily a complete fail,’’ she said. ‘‘This is a door-die game and that’s how we’ll treat it. This could be our last [trans-Tasman] game forever. We’re going to come out firing and we know the Magic are going to want it just as badly.’’
The Mystics head into today’s game having had a couple of strong performances, which Cullen believes will give them confidence.
They were neck and neck with the New South Wales Swifts until the final minutes two weeks ago, then beat the Mainland Tactix in a de facto playoff to finish the regular season.
The Magic have been without wing attack Grace Rasmussen for the past two games, after she aggravated a calf injury during their loss to the Steel in round 12.
She is expected to return this weekend, but a call on the extent of her involvement was going to be left until today.
The Magic have won only once in the eight games when Rasmussen hasn’t played a full 60 minutes this season, so if she can’t take the court, their chances will take a hit.
Assuming Rasmussen does play, it will be Cullen’s job to mark her today, but she said she didn’t like to concentrate too much on the player opposite her.
‘‘I never go into a game focused on one player. As talented as they may be, it’s a team sport, and a combined performance is a lot stronger than just one performance.’’
It’s an attitude the whole team has adopted of late.
‘‘What we’ve tended to do in the past is focus on the other team and what their strengths are, and that’s not taken our confidence away, but maybe just altered our focus, which actually needs to be on us and what our strengths are,’’ Cullen said.
‘‘That’s what we’ve been focusing on the past two to three weeks, purely what our strengths are and what we’re going to do, not on building the other team up and amplifying their strengths.’’
Today’s game starts at 4.10pm.