Are the Silver Ferns ready to face a battle of wits and endurance at next week's Commonwealth Games? In the first of a two-part series, Suzanne McFadden listens to their miracle-worker coach and takes stock after a bruising pre-Games hit-out.
Well after the Silver Ferns had been conclusively defeated by the New Zealand Men for the second time in a week, the far-from-disheartened netballers stood in a circle with their male counterparts in an otherwise empty Pulman Arena.
Towering men’s shooter Jay Geldard, who'd inflicted a lot of pain on the Silver Ferns defence over the week, stood with a basket of purple t-shirts at his feet. Injured Ferns defender Karin Burger had chosen the colour, he quipped.
“We want to present you with this t-shirt which says ‘Valuable’,” Geldard told the Silver Ferns.
“It creates two conversations. The first thing you have to question is: Do I value myself? Can I wear this t-shirt? Do I believe in it?
“The second thing in your mind is: ‘What will other people think of me if I wear this?’ And that’s what we have to change in New Zealand. You can wear this with pride knowing you are valuable, and those around you are also valuable.”
It's a message the Silver Ferns need to hear right now with the Commonwealth Games just 10 days away.
Dame Noeline Taurua, in return, told the men’s team just how valuable they’d been, pushing the Ferns to their limits in their final preparation for Birmingham on this side of the globe.
“From the bottom of our hearts, we can only thank you,” the Silver Ferns head coach said. “We will wear you guys on our sleeve.”
It was without doubt a valuable four days for the Silver Ferns, meeting teams replicating the styles of some of those they’ll face in Birmingham, showing coaches Taurua and Deb Fuller just where they're at.
Taurua cleverly hand-picked her opposition for this dress rehearsal – a New Zealand A team brimming with players with a point to prove, and the Mixed Invitational side led by the wise head of three-time Commonwealth Games medallist Leana de Bruin and Australia midcourters Kelsey Browne and Laura Scherian imported for just the week.
In the end, the physicality and speed of the New Zealand Men proved just too much for the Silver Ferns, especially in the first half of Saturday’s final, when the men went on a shooting spree to lead 40-21 at halftime.
Taurua was happier with the second half, which the Ferns were able to draw - but she wasn’t exactly sure if that reflected a Ferns improvement or the men switching their line-up, including retiring Geldard (who'd sunk 37 from 38) to the bench.
But men's coach, Dion Te Whetu, could see the value for the Ferns in their record-breaking 19-goal win. "I think, without sounding big headed, we probably helped by exposing a few things down in their attack end and hopefully that’s something that they can take away," he says.
And he wondered whether Taurua and Fuller might be holding something back: "Did they play all of their cards? Did they show us everything? Maybe not, there’s a couple of shrewd operators there."
Remember it was Taurua's brilliant idea to play the men - for the first time in public and on prime time TV - back in 2019 before the Silver Ferns left for Liverpool and the World Cup. The women lost both matches with the men in that series, too, but the results meant little. It was the physically tough, uncompromising nature of those encounters that Taurua paid credit to for helping them win the silverware for the first time in 16 years.
It's quite a different team from three years ago. With retirements, injuries and motherhood, only five of them are headed for Birmingham - and captain Gina Crampton is the sole survivor from the seven who took the court in the World Cup final.
Although the current Ferns showed signs of wilting after four tough matches in a row last week (which mirrors the final four days of the Commonwealth Games schedule), Taurua promised not to go too hard on them for it. They’re still loading, she says.
In fact, they’re where she wants them – and according to the data they’re collecting, the Ferns are actually ahead of where they were at the same time leading into their 2019 World Cup triumph (remember they’d just come off a dismal fourth at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games).
“I’ve got no qualms about anything,” Taurua says. “I back the selections, I back the people who are in the team and I’m really excited. I feel if we can just keep chugging away and be better than we were yesterday, I really feel we’re showing glimpses of that. The data for me is evidence enough to show we’re moving in the right direction, so we’ve just gotta keep the faith, keep confident and keep working hard.”
Maybe they also need to print up t-shirts with the slogan: “In Noels we trust”. The sentiment was commonly heard around the stadium in Papakura last week – the trust in Taurua’s miracle work to come to the fore again.
Take it from Silver Ferns captain Gina Crampton, the players are putting their trust in Dame Noels too. “I think the sheer improvement that we’ve had in the last couple of weeks is definitely a confidence builder, and obviously we have full faith in what Noels is giving to us," Crampton says.
“If she’s feeling confident, that makes us feel confident as well.”
There were revelations in their two wins and two losses.
- Whitney Souness playing at centre, for the first time since her school days, and immediately linking with wing attack Crampton.
- The mettle of young midcourter Kate Heffernan, particularly at wing defence. She’s yet to earn an international cap, but last week’s experience has her primed to make an impact with her long levers disrupting play.
- Experienced goal shoot Maia Wilson playing at goal attack for a full 60 minutes in the black dress for the first time. It means she can combine with 20-year-old Grace Nweke at goal shoot to become the Ferns’ No.1 shooting combination right now. Wilson’s eye was in for long-range shots (adding 22 from 25 attempts against the Mixed Invitational side), and with all defence efforts focused on Nweke, she took advantage of room to move in the circle.
But it also highlighted a concern. While Wilson looked sharp at goal attack in the last two games, that’s not her forte. And both the back-ups for the bib, Bailey Mes (shooting at 60 percent) and Te Paea Selby-Rickit (74 percent), suffered from the yips under the hoop during the series.
At the same time, former Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio, who fell short of fitness for Birmingham in her return from having her second child, was in fine shooting form for NZ A, her accuracy in the 80s and 90s.
And the goal defence bib is still up for grabs. Sulu Fitzpatrick played much of the series there, and Phoenix Karaka came into her own in the final against the NZ Men.
There's still time to iron out any small creases. The Silver Ferns fly out on Thursday for a final five-day training camp in Colchester, with double training days and a game against the London Pulse.
"That’s another stage for us to really pull apart the areas that worked and didn’t work well, during these series," Taurua says. "The areas where we were exposed and then see what we can do to mend that. So there's still a bit to go."
While the Silver Ferns were the big winners from the series, in terms of an unrivalled internal build-up, the other three teams took plenty away from it, too. The NZ Men got more exposure for their exciting, skilful game, on the cusp of their own international series; players in NZ A were given a chance to prove the Silver Ferns selectors wrong; while the Mixed Invitational gave us a look at what the future may hold – the form netball might take if its to finally break into sports highest realm, the Olympic Games.
It was a win-win for everyone. At least, we'll find out if that's the case for netball's world champions over the next few weeks.
* Tomorrow: LockerRoom talks to four legends of the game who discovered first-hand how the Silver Ferns are shaping up.
