Mental shift helps Silver Ferns snare netball bronze

The Silver Ferns’ coach says she saw a mental shift in her team when they won bronze at the Commonwealth Games, beating England 55-48.

Grace Nweke
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The win was an important morale boost for the side after a heavy 51-67 loss to Jamaica knocked them out of a shot at gold.

The Silver Ferns went on a six-goal scoring spree in the second quarter to put them ahead 29-23 at half time and maintained their composure when the Roses fought back.

It was a significant turn-around after the Ferns were beaten by England by 10 goals in pool play.

Silver Ferns’ Coach Dame Noeline Taurua said to go back home with a medal was “massive”.

“Especially for that seven who were out there at the end …not only for our confidence but also the selection of the players, and then also our lead up going into the netball world cup.”

Dame Noeline said she saw a mental shift.

“We can be a bit soft sometimes so for us to do that in front of this crowd is really good for us …It’s good to see that fighting spirit that we actually have it and we can deliver it.”

She said the tournament gave them a good base to start from.

“What it shows and the players know – that to be a gold medallist you need to be consistent and be able to lift every game.”

It was the first game in Birmingham where the starting seven stayed on court for the full game.

Young shooter Grace Nweke had her best game in the black dress, shooting 44 from 48 attempts at 92 percent accuracy, against veteran defender Geva Mentor.

By half time Nweke had already slotted 25 goals, two more than she scored in the three quarters she played against England three days ago.

“Every time that Grace has been out there she’s been schooled by Geva, so I thought she stood up really well and she’ll get a lot of confidence moving forward.”

Dame Noeline said she didn’t have any regrets about not starting Nweke against Jamaica in the semi-finals.

“What we’ve got to remember is she’s 20, so when she played Geva the day before she got the willies so I’m not prepared to put people in when they’re not ready and they have to be. And she’ll get a lot of confidence coming out of this game against a world class player so I just want to be careful with her.

“If anything it’s blimmin scary I think if she just keeps trucking along and I think she’s really put her hand up on the world stage.”

Newby Kate Heffernan continued her impressive tournament, playing at wing defence in the bronze final.

“She did a brilliant job, she’s very unassuming Kate but she’s got really fast speed off the mark but also I think she’s got a bit of mongrel in there too.”

The Silver Ferns have put an emphasis on treasuring possession and only coughed up a miserly six turnovers for the entire game.

Captain Gina Crampton said everyone stepped up to the plate.

“Grace [Nweke] her first pinnacle event she’s playing like that, she’s just going to be massive for us over the coming years. I thought Te Paea [Selby-Rickit] did really well as well. Our defence end got ball tonight, so we pulled it all together at the same time.

“There’s four massive teams in netball at the moment and we can say we got number three this time around so I think that’s definitely an achievement with a group that hasn’t been together for very long,” Gina Crampton said.

Australia later beat Jamaica 55-51 to claim gold.

Ten years ago the Silver Ferns’ coach only had to worry about Australia. Now Dame Noeline has to also think about England and Jamaica, who reached their first ever final at a pinnacle event.

“I feel that the face of netball is changing …whether that’s through SSN (the Australian netball league) and the introduction of more imports into their competition …When you look at Uganda beating South Africa, no wonder we had a hard time against them.”

Dame Noeline said they had to shift their thinking around the opposition.

“What can we do? This is a good gauge for us. We’ll get a gauge when we play Australia about how far or close we are from the opposition in Constellation Cup and then we’ve got to work hard.

“You used to have a hundred plus margin wins [at pinnacle events] but now it’s not a walk over and I think that’s great for netball in general.”