The U23 Zone Tournament at Wellington’s ASB Sports Centre wrapped up on Sunday, with Netball Waikato Bay of Plenty taking out the title after an unbeaten weekend and coaches and organisers declaring the event an outstanding success.
The second round of action took place during the morning with both of Saturday’s winners, WBOP and Northern, picking up their second straight victories over Mainland and Central respectively. Once again, the trial of proposed rule changes to the global game led to some high-scoring encounters.
A quirk of the draw meant that WBOP and Northern, the two unbeaten teams, faced each other in the last round, which effectively became the tournament ‘final’, while Mainland and Central had the opportunity to register their first win. WBOP eventually came through in a low-scoring game, winning 67-50, and Central triumphed 84-41.
Priyani de Silva-Currie, assistant coach of the hosts Netball Central, felt that the tournament had served as ideal preparation for the U23 New Zealand Age Group Championships, being held in Dunedin from 7-10 July, which will also be played under the rule variations in operation at Wellington. “The tournament has been great for our team to consolidate the work that has been done over the last five weeks into two days of intensive games,” she explained.
“There have been significant improvements in court play and strategy over the weekend. Teams have put us under pressure and our ability to cope with that has increased. We have finished with confidence and flair and the team demonstrates the talent that we have in the zone and the potential stars of the future. My two Central Zone MVPs for the weekend were Laura-Meg McGlone (Netball Wellington Centre) and Rhiarna Ferris (Hawke’s Bay Netball).
“We have had a great opportunity to put the new rules into practice and we managed to get the whole of the squad on to the court, so that gives us some insight into how they are performing. We need to look at some strategic decisions with regard to the new rules around what the defence are looking at, when to take a one-point shot and when to take a two-point shot. We need to continue to lift the intensity of our performance, maintain that for 60 minutes and build in each quarter of the game.”
Her views were echoed by Nic Kelly, coach of the Mainland team, who was delighted at the opportunity for her team to experience such an intense playing environment. “The learnings for us have been massive and the team have been surprised at the intensity and changing dynamics that the new rules bring,” she said.
“I found that I learnt a lot as a coach over the weekend, as I’ve observed what other teams are doing and their interpretation on the rules and how to use them. We will take these away and do some analysis to be better prepared for nationals. Some of the small observations were interesting e.g. the centres have a lot more running to do as there are a lot more turnovers as teams take the two-point shots, more options for the defence to cover and the shooters need to have confidence to put up the two-point shot.”
Carolyn Young, CEO of Netball Central Zone the tournament organisers, was pleased with the success of the event and the performance of the host team. “It’s been a great weekend to trial the new rules and see four of the five U23 teams on display here in Wellington,” she said. “The new rules make the game quicker and there was less whistle, so it will be interesting to see how teams interpret and use these new rules to their advantage.
“The Central team did a great job and finished on a high with a good win over Mainland. It was great to see a number of franchise players in the other teams and see the strength that they bring to their teams from the experience they have had being in the ANZ Championship environment. These players are the ANZ players of the future and this first tournament is a good stepping stone to display their skills.”
The Weekend Scores
Central v WBOP Q1 23-20, Q2 42-36, Q3 55-56, Q4 69-81
Mainland v Northern Q1 8-25, Q2 21-44, Q3 32-64, Q4 42-80
Central v Northern: Q1 17-21, Q2 40-46, Q3 51-70, Q4 69-94
WBOP v Mainland: Q1 24-10, Q2 36-24, Q3 62-33, Q4 79-40
Central v Mainland: Q1 25-14, Q2 46-28, Q3 60-30, Q4 84-41
WBOP v Northern: Q1 20-12, Q2 39-20, Q3 51-33, Q4 67-50
Comments are closed.