Tactix alert to threat of shooter

Jhaniele Fowler-Reid must love playing the Mainland Tactix nearly as much as the sun-kissed beaches in her native Montego Bay.

The Jamaican shooting supremo has dominated plenty of defensive ends since joining the Southern Steel in 2013, but she’s terrorised the Tactix, putting up astonishing numbers.

Fowler-Reid and her unbeaten Steel side will be out to continue her mastery over the hapless Tactix when the South Island rivals meet at Christchurch’s Horncastle Arena tonight.

In eight previous matches against the Tactix, the 1.98m giant has averaged 54 goals at 93 percent accuracy. She has slotted 60 or more in four of those games.

Her tally could be even higher, if not for a knee injury against the Tactix in 2014, which saw her leave the court after the first quarter, having converted 11 attempts.

Fowler-Reid landed a staggering 65 goals twice against the Tactix in 2013 during the former ANZ Championship, which was a competition record.

Tactix coach Sue Hawkins knows it’s imperative they win the ball higher up the court because when Fowler-Reid gets it under the hoop, she’s almost unstoppable.

‘‘If we focus too much on Fowler-Reid we get in all sorts of trouble,’’ Hawkins said.

‘‘Our focus will be doing our job and doing it as well as we can.’’

No netball side scores quicker than the Steel, who can get the ball into Fowler-Reid’s hands in two or three movements from the centre pass.

Steel’s Silver Fern midcourters Gina Crampton and Shannon Francois are both crafty players, but it certainly makes your job easier when you’ve got a target like Fowler-Reid towering over the circle defenders.

Slowing the supply of ball through to her won’t be the only issue confronting the Tactix.

Their attack has been a mess the last two matches, scoring just 37 goals in both losses to the Stars and Pulse.

That’s been a combination of poor shooting, sloppy turnovers and struggles bringing the ball through court.

Slotting less than 10 goals a quarter won’t get it done at this level, a major concern considering the Steel average 74 per game in their opening three wins.

The Tactix haven’t beaten the Steel since June, 2012, and not even their most diehard fans would predict an upset over the title favourites.

Hawkins said her side would take confidence from their performance last season in Invercargill, where they led the Steel for large parts of the game before fighting out a draw.

They did a solid job keeping Fowler-Reid contained with Nicola Mackle starring at centre and Hayley Saunders outplaying Francois.

‘‘We’ve revisited a few tapes and revisited a few tactics that we’ve used on them before. We’ll be looking to do that.

‘‘The good thing is we’ve got a very smart defensive end.’’

Wing attack Erikana Pedersen is back to bolster the Tactix after missing the Pulse match with a virus.

Hawkins said captain and fringe Silver Fern defender Jess Moulds was progressing well in her recovery from a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) suffered last year, but there was no timeline on a return.

She is expected to miss the bulk of the campaign and there is a chance she may not even feature at all.

‘‘The thing we don’t want to do is pressure cook an ACL. You see it in a lot of other codes and they rerupture the ACL because they push them too quickly.

‘‘We cherish her knees because once the knees go you’re wobbly for the rest of your life.’’

The opening centre pass is at 7.40pm.