 A Word from Wenz
It’s time to make history! Round One of the inaugural ANZ Premiership is finally here and we are absolutely pumped for netball’s new era to start.
To feature in the opening game of New Zealand’s latest sporting competition is an honour and there’s an excited anticipation brewing amongst our team.
Not only does our first assignment involve the newly-formed Northern Stars franchise, it is also Super Sunday – a new concept featuring all six teams at the same venue! Bring on April 30 when they’re all at our ILT Stadium Southland fortress!
Heading into the competition, the “favourites” tag has been bandied about and we know there is a degree of expectancy out there. As athletes, we tend to ignore that because I can honestly say no-one’s expectation is higher than that we put on ourselves.
If the sweat and tears (I’m not kidding - there has been tears from some players!) we’ve shed during the past three months of pre-season is any indication, we’ve definitely done the hard yards to ensure we’re ready. As captain, I am incredibly proud of the commitment, tenacity and sheer grit shown by everyone. It’s a reflection of the performances we want to put out on court and bodes well for the season ahead.
We’ve added another tall timber to the mix with Jennifer O’Connell joining our ranks. At 193cm, she’s just 5cm shorter than Jhaniele! Hailing from the south, she joins Abby Erwood and Jamie Hume as our young guns and it’s fantastic to watch our homegrown talent evolve. The trio are also members of the NZ U21 squad and we’d love to see them achieve their goal of competing at the 2017 Youth World Championship in Botswana in July.
Our management team of coaches Reinga and Lauren, team manager Dayna, physio Corina Ngatuere and S and C Coach Mikey Jacobs worked tirelessly to put together a solid pre-season campaign and now it’s time to us reward their efforts.
We’re kicking off our 2017 title quest with two games on the road and can’t until round three when we get to play on home turf. In the meantime, you can tune into Sky Sport to catch us in action. But let’s face it, there’s nothing better than LIVE netball so make sure you’ve got your tickets to our clash against the Magic on April 10.
Cheers,
Wenz
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