Avenging Latu is coming on strong

REVENGE is a strong word. But then Cathrine Latu is out to prove she’s a strong woman. Weaker people might be in Italy right now. That’s where the 28-year-old’s fiance, Jim, is playing rugby and where she could be enjoying a change of scene and waiting for Waimarama Taumaunu’s tenure as Silver Ferns coach to come to an end.

Instead, she’s in Wellington, playing for Waitakere at the national netball championships, before assembling in Auckland on Sunday with the rest of the players hoping to make New Zealand’s Constellation Cup squad.

Taumaunu didn’t pick Latu for the Netball World Cup. There’s a chance she won’t recall the shooter for this four-test series against Australia either.

In circumstances like that, you could understand if Latu made herself unavailable. After all, surely she’d have a better shot under a new regime?

‘‘A ‘better shot’ means it’s just between Wai and I and that’s not what it is,’’ Latu said.

‘‘I could’ve taken the easy road and I could’ve walked away from the Constellation Cup and then tried my luck with a new coach. But my thing is that I wasn’t wanted by the coaching staff that are in there now, so I want to show them that I still have the fight in me.

‘‘It’s nothing personal, but it’s something I need to prove to myself, instead of taking the easy road and waiting for someone else to fall in love with me.’’

Rejection is hard. Public rejection harder still. Latu is still coming to terms with the fact she didn’t make the world cup squad.

Jim has been the one to keep her going over the last 10 years. Without him Latu’s had to be more selfsufficient, which hasn’t been a bad thing. These trials mean a lot to her, not least because of a discontent that’s been simmering since January, when Taumaunu took a team to Fiji picked purely on fitness testing. Latu and fellow incumbents Ameliaranne Wells, Liana Leota and Joline Henry weren’t among the topfour players in their respective units and were left behind.

None returned for the world cup. ‘‘We were made out to be these big fat slobs that did nothing over summer but that wasn’t the case,’’ said Latu.

Their reward was to be ‘‘absolutely punished’’ in gruelling fitness sessions, while the team played test matches in Suva against Fiji and Samoa.

With Maria Tutaia sitting out the Constellation Cup, the Silver Ferns need another shooter. Whether that’s Latu remains to be seen. But she certainly has a lot invested in the process.

‘‘Not just getting back in, not just getting my revenge but proving a point to myself and my family that I didn’t come this far to [only] come this far.’’

Latu admits her imperfections. She also has strengths and, for a time, it seemed those were

‘I want to show them that I still have the fight in me. It’s nothing personal, but it’s something I need to prove to myself. Cathrine Latu with fiance Jim Tuivaiti

becoming strengths of the Silver Ferns too.

But she acknowledges she became ‘‘a one trick pony’’ in the shooting circle and that change was necessary after the team’s disastrous results in 2014.

She’s worked hard to adapt and expand her game, but she’ll never be Bailey Mes ‘‘and vice versa’’.

Among the things hampering Latu is the perception she can’t cope with Australia’s goal keep Laura Geitz. The Diamonds skipper has Latu worked out, making her something of a liability.

‘‘There’s an obvious game plan against me and it’s to make it look like you’re getting hit as much as possible and it’s been quite a tough journey to figure out how to fix that,’’ said Latu.

‘‘I’m going to get flak for what I’m going to say next and that’s that not much of that contact is really happening and I’m sick of it. However, it’s being called and there’s nothing I can do about that apart from try and figure out ways around that. You keep doing it until you can’t get away with it anymore and she’s still getting away with it so I need to find a different way. Physically we can match each other and if it’s just good, pure, hard netball it’d be lovely.

‘‘But this acting thing is really working so wouldn’t you keep doing that?’’

Talk of Geitz assumes Latu will be marking her sometime soon. But she knows from bitter experience that the trials might be as close as she gets.

‘‘I don’t think I can feel any worse than not making the World Cup squad so I guess I need to brace myself for that [again].

‘‘But there have been things that have happened since missing out on the World Cup team that I don’t think I would’ve found out about myself otherwise, like how much I appreciated my partner for actually being here.

‘‘I just need to maybe expect the worst and see what happens. Till then I’m just going to give everything I have left.’’