Early tourney leaves Steel with positives
A recent pre-season tournament in Dunedin left the Southern Steel with plenty to ponder.
The side was down on personnel for the matches with various players nursing injuries. However, it provided the ideal opportunity for fringe players to put their best foot forward.
Coach Reinga Bloxham said there were plenty of lessons from the matches in Dunedin.
“It was a bit of a mixed bag, to be honest. We started the weekend really strongly against the Tactix and had a good three quarters in that game, which was great.
“The following morning, we played the Mystics and had a good half of netball before falling away in the second half against them, and the back end of the next two games weren’t great.”
Late in the Showdown, Bloxham said the side were managing injuries and concussions.
“We definitely do have some work to do. As we have quite a few of our contracted players out injured, so as they come back in, things will start to gel and look a bit better.”
The Tactix are first up in round one and Bloxham hopes all of her team will be available.
“At this stage it’s looking pretty good, but there might be a couple, or at least one, who won’t be able to do a full game but should be part of it, so that’s better than not having them playing at all.”
In Dunedin, Bloxham said it was nice to get a read on how the other sides were tracking and mix things up a bit.
“It was good to get a bit of a look at the other ANZ teams because we hadn’t done any other pre-season up to that point.
“I think most other teams had one or two players out with niggles, while some were running close to their top lineups.”
Super Showdown was useful to try different combinations and see how the youngsters went, Bloxham said.
Ivari Christie and Jen O’Connell suffered concussions, while Kate Heffernan was sidelined by an ankle niggle and Shannon Saunders also spent time on the bench, meaning youngsters Ella Southby, Emilie Nicholson, Isabella Galvin and Grace Southby got plenty of minutes.
“All four of them did incredibly well. At one stage, they were up against the best players in the country.
“At times, they handled it well and other times they struggled but you aren’t going to know that if you don’t chuck them in the deep end sometimes.”
Heffernan and Saunders did offer Bloxham assistance from the sideline.
“Kate and Shannon were great. Jo [Morrison] and I were really challenging to them to have some input.
“They really provided a different voice on the sideline and you often notice that when those two spotted something the players on court listened.”
“It’s great having Shannon back. She is such a positive role model on and off the court.”
The Steel face the Tactix in their ANZ Premiership opener on April 15 at Wolfbrook Arena in Christchurch.