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Welcome to Mystics Nation – Official online magazine of the Northern Mystics
Coach’s Corner
Mid Season Review Round 1 - 10
It’s fair to say that when we started we didn’t gel as a team and it was my job as coach to look at what caused this and to find the gaps in our environment, information, culture and programme. It is important to note that “synergy” and “form” are very important in netball because the momentum can swing throughout a game and unless you have a collective clarity about how you play, it can be tough to manage We went into the Vixens game determined to execute, yet found ourselves making errors and it was tough for us to score. To recover from a 23-goal loss in Aussie and come up against a confident Magic side was a challenge. We had to dust off the loss and regroup quickly. It was important to realise that things can change overnight in this competition, and instead of going into overdrive we needed to focus on tangible on-court processes that would help us score and create more defensive pressure. We focused on the centre pass, both on attack and defence. The Pulse game was a much better performance as we played with more clarity, even though we lost again. It was a reality check and we had to ensure we committed to the processes, avoided the default behaviours of division and blame and kept positive. This competition is a cauldron, but the pressure is all part of being in an elite team that represents a proud netball zone. We understand accountability, however we must first focus on what we can control – how we play the game. The Thunderbirds game was our breakthrough. It gave us back our faith in each other and our flow. It was another reminder of how tough this competition is. The positive was that we ran down a big margin, even though we didn’t close out the game. Once again our total focus was on where the gaps were and what needed fixing. Our game against the Steel (round 6) was hugely rewarding because the netball we put on court was consistent. We managed pressure better, negated ball to their goal shoot at crucial times and scored with skill and commitment. Onwards and upwards.
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Like many fans of the Mystics – and the team itself – I was gutted to lose Sunday’s game to the Steel (round 10). Next week I will be driving the team to sustain the great netball we are capable of for the full 60 minutes. In the third quarter against Steel, we went on a six-goal run, then made errors and let them score a six against us. We came back at times, but couldn’t match their accuracy on attack and turnover on defence. We were really upset at this result, as I know our supporters were. How did we let our performance slip and why did we hand Steel their best game of the season? We can’t compete with the best sides in this competition if we can’t be consistent and execute under all circumstances. I never question my team’s desire to win. To me, striving to win is more important than winning. You can play averagely for most of a game (for example, our game against the Tactix in Christchurch) and win and you can play some great netball and lose (our game against Magic in Hamilton). In general, we have success when we can play the game on our terms and when we can’t, we struggle. We are fully aware we have underperformed for our supporters this season and accept responsibility for that. Despite the inconsistency, I wouldn’t want to be doing this with any other group of athletes as I firmly believe I couldn’t have a better team to coach. Improvement must come from everyone in the team, including me. We have to make sure our next outing is a big improvement from Sunday – for us and our disappointed supporters. The 20 minutes of flat netball we played is not who we are and we have a chance in 10 days to redeem ourselves when we play Pulse in Palmerston North. We are fully capable of playing some great netball and I believe when our intensity is high, structures clear and our determination to work and play through every scenario is ticked off we will have success. Debbie Fuller (Debs) Head Coach Northern Mystics