Star-shooter eyes netball final showdown

You’re a 17-year-old girl making your ANZ Premiership debut. You stand out, not just because you’re really tall, but because you’re really good.

Then next thing you know, you’ve got no less an authority than Silver Ferns coach Noeline Taurua saying of you: ‘‘Oh God, she’ll be great, she’ll be awesome’’.

You’ve made an immediate impact for a Northern Mystics team that was full of big names but underperformed once again. You are, in fact, the silver lining in a season where they’ve suffered the ignominy of finishing last. For your efforts, you’re named in the Silver Ferns development squad, attending camps while finishing up your final year at Avondale College.

As it turned out, 2019 was a pretty wild year for you. So what do you do in 2020? For Grace Nweke, the answer’s been simple. More.

In her first year out of school, the towering shooter has enrolled at the University of Auckland, where she’s studying a conjoint science-commerce degree. She’s been back on campus since the second semester started last month and is loving it, just like many 18-year-olds do.

She’s also enjoying having her restricted driver’s licence – passing the test, she says, after three attempts – and the freedom that comes with it; a rite of passage for Kiwi teenagers.

What’s different is that most teens aren’t talked about the way 1.93m-tall Nweke is in netball circles. As the ANZ Premiership began in March, then began again in June after the lockdown, there was plenty of interest in how she would fare in her second season. As her Mystics team-mate Michaela Sokolich-Beatson once said: ‘‘Helene [Wilson], our coach, always says that your second year is your make-or-break year’’.

‘‘People know how you play now, and if you can adjust and keep getting better, you’re going to stay in the competition, but if you keep doing the same things, you probably won’t go very far.’’

As the business end of the season approaches, there have been few signs of the ‘‘secondyear blues,’’ as Nweke calls them.

Grace Nweke

She’s been making 90 per cent of her shots, an improvement on 82 per cent last year, and has the league’s best goal percentage.

She is the senior figure in the Mystics’ shooting circle, with Silver Fern Bailey Mes out for the season with injury, and has relished having to go out there and impress everyone again.

‘‘It has been a challenge, but I’ve kind of enjoyed that – just being able to prove to everyone that I’m not a one-hit wonder and almost in a way trying to live up to those expectations.’’

Nweke currently has a full course-load at university, and while that does make for a busy life when combined with her netball duties, it’s something she enjoys. ‘‘My dad always tells me how the best person to give a task to is a busy person, because they’ll be able to do it, and I think I’ve kind of adopted that..’’

Nweke’s name is already brought up in conversation when Silver Ferns squads are discussed, but she is determined to make her way to that level at her own pace.

The Mystics stumbled on Friday night, losing to the

Southern Steel in Invercargill, and now need to beat the Mainland Tactix at Trusts Arena in Auckland to make the top two.

It’s a contest Nweke is looking forward to – even if she rates the Tactix’ defensive duo as the toughest she has come up against.

‘‘It has been a challenge, but I’ve kind of enjoyed that.’’