Work first, play later for Grant
THE jandals are staying put time.
Defender Katrina Grant was named player of the match after the Silver Ferns beat Fiji 91-31 in Porirua on Thursday night but, if she wants more awards of that sort, she needs to take appropriate footwear on her four-yearly international adventures.
After the 2011 World Cup, Grant flip-flopped her way around Europe. She had a fun time, but came back with a stress fracture in her foot and missed that year’s Constellation Cup series.
The Silver Ferns have a few important games to play between now and Grant’s next post-World Cup trip, when she’ll be off to do volunteer work in Guatemala.
‘‘So this time I’m taking my running shoes and that with me. Smart, eh? I learnt my lesson,’’ Grant said ahead of tomorrow’s test against South Africa in Hamilton.
Guatemala has been in the pipeline for a while. Grant likes travel and wanted a legitimate reason to learn Spanish.
So, having diligently done her Spanish lessons over the last few months, Grant will – hopefully – win the World Cup in Sydney, spend a few days relaxing in San Francisco, then head to the Guatemalan highland city of Antigua for a fortnight.
‘‘For the first week I’m going to do construction, so painting houses and bits and pieces. Apparently you need to be able to lift bricks and that type of carry-on,’’ said Grant.
Then, by happy coincidence, the Central Pulse captain has got something teed up through the team’s major sponsor. ‘‘Mojo get their coffee beans from Guatemala so, in the second week, I’m hopefully going to volunteer there.
‘‘When you go over, you volunteer for about four hours a day and then you can go and have Spanish lessons after that and you stay with a homestay and things. I’m excited about it.’’
The best thing is that won’t be a netball in sight.
‘‘It’s very consuming and I definitely need, and want, to do something completely different.’’
The immediate priority, though, is beating South Africa tomorrow, then on Tuesday in Auckland. Fiji were swept aside easily enough but Grant imagines
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there the Proteas, under new coach Norma Plummer, will present a far greater challenge.
‘‘I assume they’ll have a more Aussie feel to them and probably start doing the hard man-on-man [defence] and, with their shooters, have a nice, fast, rolling circle. I reckon they’re going to be a lot different to what they’ve been in the past.’’
Any number of the Silver Ferns could’ve won player of the day against Fiji. It just so happened that the judges picked the one who was cuddling a baby when the presentation was made.
Marcel Wiffen is the youngest son of Grant’s friend, and former Pulse team-mate, Daya Wiffen and the defender took delight bringing him along to accept the award.