Hamilton Girls’ netballers grab national schools title
Te Awamutu’s Liza Ball and her Hamilton Girls’ High School side became first-time NZ Secondary Schools netball champs after outclassing St Margaret’s College 33-24 in the final at Porirua in mid-October.
Setting the tone from the outset, Hamilton produced a dominant opening as Christchurch’s St Margaret’s struggled against their speed and physicality.
“This is significant for us,” an emotional Kim Howard, Hamilton Girls’ coach, said.
“For me personally, the school brought me in as a director of netball to put Hamilton Girls’ High on the map, and it’s been a collective effort with the girls who have put in the work and all of us behind the scenes.
“Winning the Upper North Island Secondary Schools tournament this year, we knew that we were on the right track and in with a chance here. I couldn’t have asked for too much more after a mentally taxing and gruelling week.”
Slick first-phase play and smothering defensive work gave Hamilton Girls’ the edge during the opening stanza. Goal attack Arikinoa Shortland received plenty of ball from her mid-courters while providing pinpoint accuracy under the hoop to score all her team’s first-quarter goals.
St Margaret’s were knocked off their stride early and struggled for a decent ball supply into reliable shooters Te Ata Hassan and Ivy Brown as Hamilton Girls’ took a handy 12-6 lead into the first break.
The second stanza produced an arm wrestle, the tight marking and suffocating defence of Hamilton Girls’ keeping St Margaret’s on the back foot.
The defensive duo of Marawa
Samson ( wing defence) with four intercepts for the match and goal defence Liza Ball with three made for a menacing presence.
St Margaret’s did their best to stem the flow, with wing defence Milly Farrell a determined contributor, but Hamilton Girls’ ever-present ability to find space and flow on attack led to a healthy 18-11 buffer at the main break.
Outstanding close marking from Samson and Ball — who grabbed a succession of possession turnovers through their ability to snaffle the ball from a standing jump — and the continued speed of ball movement on attack kept Hamilton Girls’ on the front foot through the third stanza.
Living off scraps, St Margaret’s generally successful short game was unable to counter the speed and ruthless efficiency of their northern counterparts, and they could not break Hamilton’s overall accuracy.
Keeping their foot on the pedal, Hamilton Girls’ headed into the last break with a 26-17 lead.