Mainland tactics: Stick to the budget

Following a year of challenges no sporting organisation would want to face, the Mainland Tactix have tenaciously come out the other end.

Coronavirus sent the 2020 ANZ Premiership runners-up into voluntary liquidation last year, and every staff member aside from coach Marianne Delaney-Hoshek was made redundant.

“Obviously the hardest part was losing good people around us, we didn’t have the backing, the support behind us that most teams have,” Delaney-Hoshek says. “It relied on us to do everything and relied on the girls to take a big part in that.

“We were lucky to still be able to play and the fact that Netball New Zealand took us on and took us under their organisation, that’s what saved us really.”

Fast forward a year, the Tactix remain under the control of Netball New Zealand, with Delaney-Hoshek still the only full-timer, but they’ve been able to take on a part-timers.

The team is doing their best to maintain a strict budget which

We’re certainly aiming to win the final this year. There’s a lot of work to do.

Marianne Delaney-Hoshek

includes no desserts when dining out.

“For me, when everything fell apart for us at Netball Mainland, I’d have weekly calls with [national coach] Noeline Taurua to chat things through which was really good for me, so there’s those levels as well,” Delaney-Hoshek says. “They’ve had the coaching liaison person just making sure we’re all okay and Noels has been great at leading us. If we’ve got any questions, she’ll help.”

Despite the carnage, they still managed to qualify for the premiership decider for the first time, and their first domestic final since

2004. It was an achievement DelaneyHoshek admits came with “disbelief ”.

“Even though I knew we could do it, we had a really tough weekend of games having to beat both the Mystics and the Pulse who were the top two teams at that point. It was a massive weekend and it was a top effort by our team just to do that. I can’t believe that now looking back.

“We’re certainly aiming to win the final this year. There’s a lot of work to do so if we can work to the values we’ve set out and we all put 100 per cent into our roles, then it’s certainly achievable.”

With the 2021 premiership beginning in April, the team is using

2020 as a building block.

“We always start the season walking up the Bridle Path [in the Port Hills, Christchurch]. When we get up there you can pretty much see all of our zone, so you can see all the way up to sort of Kaikoura, Nelson, you can see the sea in the distance — it’s quite cool.

“Everyone has come in looking really sharp, quite purposeful and really hit the ground running.”