The Steel’s centre of attention
Switching to centre and mastering a second position could help propel talented Steel midcourter into Silver Ferns for first time.
A move to the centre position could catapult Kate Heffernan closer to representing New Zealand in a second sport internationally.
The highly-rated Heffernan is an experienced head on young shoulders in her fourth season with the Southern Steel and is still only 21.
She has been on the Silver Ferns radar since debuting for the Steel in 2018 as an injury replacement, being a national development squad member for the past three years.
With Steel stalwart and Ferns wing-attack Gina Crampton shifting to the Stars this season after nine years with the team, the southerners reshuffled their midcourt.
Heffernan, who had been the team’s starting wing-defence, has moved into centre with experienced Ferns midcourter Shannon Saunders operating at wingattack.
Having played centre through high school at Dunedin’s St Hilda’s Collegiate, Heffernan is no stranger to the position, but had only played the odd quarter there in the elite ranks.
If Heffernan can master centre and wing-defence it could be a valuable asset for her Ferns’ prospects in a congested area of the court.
A gifted athlete, Heffernan is already a Fern in one sport. In 2018, the left-arm seamer played two cricket Twenty20s for the White Ferns against the West Indies, opening the bowling.
She made the difficult decision to step away from cricket and put all her energy into netball, but hadn’t closed the door on a possible return one day.
‘‘It was tough and that was exactly my mindset. I’m going to have to try hard at one or the other if I want to make it to the national team, if I really want to be great at the sport.
‘‘It was really tough.’’ Being able to play two positions at a high level could be advantageous for Heffernan’s Silver Ferns hopes.
New Zealand netball is blessed with plenty of midcourt depth, even after the retirement of Ferns great Laura Langman last year.
Ferns coach Noeline Taurua admitted this week some very good players would miss out later this year, given the intense competition in the midcourt.
‘‘Versatility is important in the midcourt because New Zealand’s midcourt is just so strong. We’ve got so many amazing athletes in that midcourt,’’ Heffernan said.
‘‘Most of them can play two positions. A couple of them can play all three. I’d love to be a wing-defence and centre, so having those two positions would be really cool.’’
Heffernan has started the season strongly for the Steel, who have exceeded expectations through five games, and sit third on the table with nine points. They host the Tactix in Invercargill tomorrow. She was superb on attack and defence in the Steel’s first away win of the season last Sunday, a 56-52 victory against the two-time defending champions Pulse, delivering a playerof-the-match performance.
At 1.81m, Heffernan is tall for a midcourter and her height gives her a strong point of difference.
Playing centre in the premiership was a huge leap from high school netball. Heffernan was growing with each game around her feeding, vision, and bringing the ball through court safely.
‘‘I’m definitely finding the lungs are burning, which is good.
‘‘I’m enjoying the challenge and the challenge is defensively all the teams are so strong. Definitely, the transition when you’re on attack and the ball gets turned over, you’re all the way down the other end.’’
Claire Kersten and Kimiora Poi are the incumbent Silver Ferns’ centres from the Constellation Cup triumph against Australia, while fellow national squad members Saunders, Sam Winders and Maddy Gordon can all easily slot into the ‘C’ bib.
Standing out on a weekly basis is critical if she is to break into the Ferns for the first time.
Netball runs deep in Heffernan family.
Identical twin sister Georgia is a shooter and was a member of the Steel squad last season. She suffered a sickening knee injury last June, rupturing her ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), MCL (medial collateral ligament) and also suffering meniscus damage.
Georgia is well ahead of schedule with her recovery and aims to get back on court for the South secondtier Beko League team
and in the Dunedin club netball this winter.
Mother Annette Heffernan earned nine caps for the Ferns as a defender between 1985-90, featuring in New Zealand’s 1987 world championship winning team in Glasgow. Aunt Maxine Blomquist was also a Fern, playing 31 tests.
‘‘Mum has been massive for me and my sister Georgia. She’s definitely our No 1 supporter. She’s at pretty much all the games or if she’s not, she’s definitely at home yelling at the TV.
‘‘She does find it quite funny how she was a goal-defence and her two daughters, one is a shooter and one is a midcourter. She gets really excited defensively when we do something good because it’s showing a bit of her genes.’’
Knowing their mother had worn the black dress had provided Kate and Georgia with powerful motivation to succeed in the sport over the years. It also showed playing for New Zealand was attainable if they continued to work hard.
‘‘I think that’s massive for us and why we’ve really stuck to it and loved the sport so much because we’ve seen our mum play at the top level.’’
Heffernan is a proud local Steel product. Raised on a sheep and beef farm in Tapanui in west Otago, she had been a long-time admirer of the Steel and their predecessors, the Sting.
She and Georgia were schooled at Tapanui’s Blue Mountain College for the first two years before boarding at St Hilda’s. They were integral in helping St Hilda’s to back-to-back South Island secondary school netball titles in 2016 and 2017.
Fresh off a disappointing 2020 premiership season, where they finished fifth and won just four games, little was expected from the rebuilding Steel this year. Losing club cornerstone Crampton to the Stars was also a blow.
The youthful new-look Steel had made a bright start and Heffernan said they always believed they could be a threat, despite struggling in pre-season. ‘‘We all knew if we play the way we could, we could be a really strong team. I’m really proud of the way we’ve started.
‘‘We are a really young team, so it’s been really cool we’ve been able to step up in some games and get some really good wins and play some really good netball.
‘‘We want to get better each week and keep growing because we have so much potential as a team.’’
Potential they hope will lead them back to finals this season.
‘‘It was tough and that was exactly my mindset. I’m going to have to try hard at one or the other if I want to make it to the national team, if I really want to be great at the sport.’’
Kate Heffernan