Defenders face variety of tasks
It had become customary to see Katrina Grant working very hard for very little return.
No matter how much effort the Central Pulse defender put in, the ball or opposition defenders often seemed to elude her, at least in the days when franchises such as the Pulse played in a trans-Tasman competition.
This isn’t a dig at Northern Stars shooters Maia Wilson and Malia Vaka. Both might be Silver Ferns, but the former’s still in her teens and the latter not far removed from childbirth.
All the same, Grant and fellow circle defender Phoenix Karaka dealt with them very comfortably in the Pulse’s 55-37 win last Monday. To the point where you wondered how much strife Grant and company might be in when it’s time to don the Silver Ferns’ dress.
You can say what you like about the old competition. But there’s no doubt confronting shooters such as Caitlin Bassett, Natalie Medhurst, Caitlin Thwaites, Romelda Aiken or Gretel Tippett on a regular basis was decent preparation for the international season.
Yvette McCausland-Durie’s immediate task is coaching Grant and Karaka at the Pulse. Come July’s national trials, though, she’ll be right into her work as Silver Ferns assistant coach.
Defence is her area of expertise and behind the scenes there is a lot of work going into preparing players for the international stage via a domestic setting.
‘‘We’ve got an opportunity to play height, in the form of Jhaniele [Fowler-Reid at the Steel], and we get that three times a year, so that’s as much as we were going to get if we were still playing the Fever and Bassett,’’ McCausland-Durie said.
‘‘This week we [the Pulse] are expecting to play Ellie Bird [of the Tactix] who is another player with height, so we’re still having a look at those strategies and applying them.
‘‘Then we’ve got the likes of two very strong shooters, both with reasonable height, in the form of Maria [Tutaia] and Bailey [Mes at the Mystics] and that’s very similar to playing someone like Gretel Tippett, so we’re getting what we need across the competition in terms of the variation teams are putting up.
‘‘Monica [Falkner] and Lenize [Potgieter of the Magic] play quite an offload game at times but both can shoot successfully. You’ve got Malia and Maia [at the Stars] who both have a very strong holding game. Cat [the Pulse’s Cathrine Tuivaiti] is a holder, so there’s enough variation that all the New Zealand defenders are having to think and prepare for what’s in front of them.’’
That starts in August, with the quad series against South Africa, England and Australia. New Zealand are keeping tabs on the Australian franchise competition, where English shooters such as Jo Harten and Helen Housby are now playing too.
The Pulse meet the Mainland Tactix in Christchurch tonight, where everyone assumes they’ll win by plenty. The coach is cautious, though, partly because the Tactix are safer with the ball than the Pulse are.
‘‘The midcourt are controlled, they don’t make errors, they use good ball speed and in defence both Zoe [Walker] and Temalisi [Fakahokotau] hunt. They sit off a little and give the illusion that there’s space to play into, but they’re lurking and confident enough to move into that space.’’