The hoist: How one act left a permanent mark on netball

Ten years ago today Australian shooter Karyn Bailey went through the motions of shooting a goal like she had done thousands of times over her netball career.

Little did she know that New Zealand defender Anna Harrison had been practicing a move behind closed doors for months, which was about to cause one of the biggest stirs the sport had ever seen.

The Harrison hoist (Anna Harrison).
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

It was Round 8 of the former trans-Tasman ANZ Championship – Bailey (nee Howarth) was the Melbourne Vixens goal shoot, Harrison was playing goal defence for the Auckland based Northern Mystics.

The Vixens playing in front of a home crowd, were trailing in the fourth quarter but were making a mini comeback.

“I remember turning to shoot the ball, thinking nothing of it,” Bailey said.

“I was right under the post, took the shot and obviously the lift was then played and you can see from my reaction from the clips of utter shock, it was kind of like ‘what just happened?'”

“It kind of just sent that fear into every single shot you put up from then on, because you’re like ‘is it going to happen again?'”

Australian commentator Sue Gaudion was behind the mic in Melbourne that day and said it was hard to process what had unfolded.

“I genuinely could not comprehend, but I’ve re-listened to it and I can hear the excitement in my voice,” Gaudion said.

“It’s a commentators dream, you’re always looking for something special …this was just a moment. I think Dan Ryan (fellow commentator) and I paused for a bit because I think we’re both sitting there in shock and then you just hear us go ‘oh this is extraordinary’ so yeah still brings a smile to my face.”

Australian commentator Sue Gaudion was behind the mic that day.
Photo: Supplied

Harrison said the idea of lifting a player to block a shot had been percolating for a while.

“I’ve never claimed it was originally ours.”

At the 2011 Netball World Cup, Singapore defenders attempted to lift each other to thwart a 6 ft 10″ shooter from Sri Lanka.

“I think it was seen by the Silver Ferns’ coaches …I guess the idea came from there,” Harrison said.

“I think it was at a January Silver Ferns’ camp we talked about it and then going into that Mystics season we had players who were up for giving it a go and I guess I’m a perfect build for it, in the sense that easy to lift.”

Fellow Mystics’ defenders Jess Maclennan (nee Moulds) and Kayla Johnson (nee Cullen) were the lifters.

Maclennan vividly remembers practicing it.

“The hardest part I think was the timing so for us to connect at the same time, lift at the right time in order to block a shot the timing is really different to when you’re defending or jumping the shot just on your own.

“There was probably a few falls where we thought this could be a little bit dangerous because she’s coming down from quite a height so how she lands safely was also a big part of it as well,” Maclennan said.

Harrison said they got it wrong so many times.

“The training that sticks out the most was the Mystics training where we were like ‘let’s do it’ and we came up with thoughts around how I was going to get up there, not just lifting.

“At one point I was sitting on someone’s shoulders and I was like ‘this is wrong’ …and that wouldn’t have been allowed anyway because ‘in the spirit of the game’ is a rule.”

“I’ve always had a strength of jumping shots, I guess that translated from my volleyball background so if I just had that extra lift to get to the rim that gives more time, so there was a lot of playing around.”

Anna Harrison’s background in volleyball helped with the timing of the lift.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Risk v Reward

The risk was that the Mystics would look foolish if they didn’t get it right in that game but Maclennan said part and parcel of being an athlete was putting yourself out there in vulnerable situations.

“The potential was there for it to go really badly …those are the times you get the most reward when you do something that’s quite scary,” Maclennan said

Had that first attempt been a failure, it would also have been easy for others to write off as too risky and consigned to the history books,

Bailey remembers the reaction from the Melbourne crowd.

“It was such mixed emotions within the stadium because you’re in shock personally as a player and the crowd behind you because it was a home game for us, they’re all booing, the Mystics bench is all excited …yeah it was an electric kind of feeling that day,” Bailey said.

Maclennan remembers booing from the crowd once they realised what had happened.

“We did it again and that’s when they were like ‘oh my gosh that is what happened’ the second time we did it everyone really realised what had gone on,” Maclennan said.

“We watched the replay after the game (which the Mystics won 49-45) and even we were like ‘oh my gosh I can’t believe that happened’ …we were pretty pumped afterwards.

“When I look back on my career that’s definitely one of the highlights.”

Harrison never anticipated it would generate the headlines it did.

“I can honestly say I was never, I was not thinking about what people would say about it, it was whether I could pull it off and whether we would get called for it from the umpires were the two things that I was thinking about,” Harrison said.

“Doing it in Australia, now I look back it was a cool place to do it because it gave netball that extra media coverage.”

Mystics’ Anna Harrison and Jessica Moulds attempt the ‘Harrison Hoist’. Northern Mystics v Canterbury Tactix, Auckland 2012
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Bailey said it was great for netball.

“The headlines were comparing it to a rugby kind of situation where they are doing a line-out. It really kind of put netball on the spectrum as to discussing it and it really did generate that hype …I just think it was phenomenal for the sport.

“Even though unfortunately I was the victim to it I just think it’s been great for the sport and I love seeing her execute it and I love seeing her do it – I just love it not being on me,” Bailey laughs.

Gaudion had no doubt it was going to get people talking.

“It was this thing that says netball is such an athletic sport.

“What I was more interested in was who was going to pick it up in the league after that because it was like ‘okay well it’s open slather now’, so what happens from here but it was a moment in time I tell you.”

Gaudion said it challenged the sport and made people think about how they could stretch the rules.

“I think that innovation was part and parcel of the time because the ANZ Championship as it was with our two countries competing against each other in a different environment.

“I think it was how do we keep getting better and what do we need to do and how do we challenge each other and it was just really exciting to see the Mystics pull something out that no one had ever seen before.”

“I followed up and spoke to Deb Fuller (Mystics coach) afterwards. I had to know and they said that they’d had some rugby players come in and sort of teach them how it was all done so absolute kudos to Deb Fuller coaching and both Anna and Jess at the time.”

Ahead of the game the Mystics had let the umpires know what they were considering and got confirmation that it would be allowed within the rules.

Revolutionary or flash in the pan?

The reaction to it and predictions about how it would impact the game were varied.

Some argued that it was a fundamental change to the way the game was played, was against the spirit of the game and should be banned.

Some thought it wouldn’t catch on, while at the other end of the scale there were concerns that it could lead to low scoring games or shooters being lifted.

“Ten years down the track and looking how it’s transcended across netball throughout the world it was obviously a moment in time,” Gaudion said.

“The fact that you don’t see it happening every second of the day in a game at any level probably speaks to just how difficult it is and you have to pick the right time for it to happen.”

The move was soon dubbed the Harrison Hoist by many.

Little by little other defenders started to try the lift with varying results.

Defenders who were slim and already had a big agile jump were best suited.

“We did see a Kate Shimmin do it in the Australian league successfully, similar body type, has that agility on that jump but it has to be so perfectly well timed in order to execute it,” Bailey said.

“But she [Anna] just used to send fear into our shooters because she just had this way of being able to execute it so perfectly.”

Harrison said it was never going to change the game dramatically.

“It was never something that you could do every time and as soon as we did it especially the New Zealand teams, very smart to play out, to block, there’s heaps of things you can do to make it even harder to do.”

Young fan Elle Temu had a photo with her idol Anna Harrison – now they play together.
Photo: Supplied – Stars Facebook page

It is technically banned now, what Harrison originally did.

In 2016 changes were made to international rules which meant that ‘goal-tending’ was no longer allowed in so far as players could not block a shot once the ball is on a downward arc.

“We lifted to attack the ball at the rim and it’s only really worked on shooters that had that lower shooting trajectory.

“The lifts that you see people doing now it’s harder because the timing has to be so much more bang on to get the ball in that mid flight as it’s left the hand. There’s more time on the ball when you’re attacking at the rim but you can’t actually do that anymore.”

The 39-year-old came out of retirement a couple of years ago and still uses the lift now and then in the ANZ Premiership for the Stars.

Her defensive partner Elle Temu, was 13 when Harrison pulled off the hoist: she now lifts Harrison.

“I’d never expected it to take off and I guess doing it in Australia was great for the sport because people were really interested in it and you had that whole other country that was like ‘whoa what happened there’ so it was cool that we did it there and it sort of had an impact over there too.”

It’s quite possible that if Harrison hadn’t done it 10 years ago, the game today would still be without a lift.

“We wouldn’t know but don’t you reckon she was the perfect person for it. Just those arms that went up, it was almost she was chosen to be the person to execute this skill,” Gaudion said.

Harrison said it was nice knowing she had left a little mark on the game.

“It was definitely something that I could look back on and go yeah that was really cool and I will take that away with me for sure.

“It’s just something that I managed to pull off and I needed the lifters …it was the fact I got to do it and people saw it so nah I’m stoked to be a part of it.”