Southern Steel put in tall order for Pulse keeper
Katrina Grant isn’t used to meeting women who are taller than her.
At 1.86m, it’s fair to say the 25- yearold Central Pulse goal keep has more height than your average female.
But for the second time in three weeks, Grant has to stop a towering Jamaican shooter from putting a ball through a 3.05m- tall hoop when the Pulse host the Southern Steel in Palmerston North tomorrow.
In round two of the ANZ Championship, Grant tussled with 1.95m Queensland Firebirds goal shoot Romelda Aiken but her assignment tomorrow has a few extra centimetres.
At 1.98m, Steel shooter Jhaniele Fowler is the tallest to play in the transtasman netball league. In three games she has sunk 150 goals at the impressive rate of 91.5 per cent and set a new benchmark for a single game in the competition when she
What I’ll have to do is make sure everyone outside me is doing their job and then they’ve got the ball before it even comes near me . . .
Katrina Grant
made 65 from 70 attempts in her second outing as she single- handedly outscored the Canterbury Tactix in the Steel’s 75- 56 victory.
But Grant’s success against Fowler will be influenced more by her teammates rather than what the Silver Fern can do.
‘‘ The hardest thing i s probably that height difference. The fact that I don’t think I can jump 13 centimetres higher than her — that’s an issue — her arms are quite long,’’ Grant said of her opponent.
‘‘ I think she can even just stand and reach the rim but it’s pretty tough. What I’ll have to do is make sure everyone outside me is doing their job and then they’ve got the ball before it even comes near me which would be quite helpful.
‘‘ The centre, wing defence and goal defence have to do a real good job outside of the circle of blocking vision, keeping away from the circle edge, just to make that pass hopefully a little bit off centre.
‘‘ If it’s a little bit skewed then I have at least a chance of going for a pass that’s not quite on target and I think that’s pretty much my only option.’’
When the Firebirds beat the Pulse 58- 56 in round two, Grant said they gave too much space to Queensland goal attack Natalie Medhurst, which meant she could easily find Aiken, so shutting down the Steel’s circle feeders will be their key job tomorrow.
There’s a new feel in the Pulse camp this week after they managed their first win of the campaign with a 55- 49 victory over the NSW Swifts in Wellington last Monday. It wasn’t a perfect performance but they showed better resolve.
‘‘ I think relief was the main feeling,’’ Grant said. ‘‘ We’ve got such a good team on paper and we haven’t quite put together a full game in the first two weeks so getting that first win was a relief.’’
Grant is one of five Pulse players who have turned out for the Steel before, alongside Donna Wilkins, Liana Leota, Paula Griffin and Te Huinga Reo Selby- Rickit, while coach Robyn Broughton i s part of Southland netball folklore. Despite that history, Grant said tomorrow’s game didn’t serve as a grudge match.
‘‘ We definitely want to get one over them, there’s no doubt, and if you’ve played for a team you always want to beat them again but I haven’t played for them for four years so it is quite distant. Obviously there’s Donna who lives down there and Robyn who’s from down there, but . . . it doesn’t matter who we play, we want to win.’’