Heffernan braced for wounded Magic
May 8, 2026
There’s nothing more dangerous in sport than a winless opponent with nothing to lose.
That’s the scenario Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel shooter Georgia Heffernan is preparing for against the Avis Magic in Tauranga on Saturday.
The stats are certainly not in the Magic’s favour. They haven’t won a first half quarter this season – in fact they have won just two of 16 quarters so far – and victory has eluded them since the same round five last year ... although hopefully that’s not an omen as far as the southerners are concerned.
Heffernan is determined to see the Steel’s momentum continue, although expects a tough encounter.
“To be honest, we’ve been in that position the Magic are in with a rough start to the season and are fully aware they will just want to disrupt. They are a really strong team, it’s just on the board they are struggling a bit,” she said.
“There’s not one part of us which is going to take them lightly because they have challenged a lot of the teams and the score has just blown out in a wee period of time for them.
“They have nothing to lose at the moment. If they win the rest of their games they could still make finals and they will be intent on disrupting and trying to ruin our win streak.
“They have a lot of strength, especially down that defensive end. Aliyah (Dunn) and I know how much Erena (Mikaere) and Oceane (Maihi) can make it pretty difficult for us but we’re excited for the challenge.”
The experienced vice-captain was rapt with the Steel’s progress thus far to sit third on the premiership points table, only goal differential denying the top spot.
“Obviously we’re feeling confident and we’re feeling really good about the way we’re playing but we also know we can lift it up a notch after last weekend so that’s exciting,” she said.
“The connection piece for us has been huge. We’ve been really making an effort to figure out how to bring the best out of each other on the court and when it gets hard, or if there’s a couple of errors, it’s about not letting that fully derail our flow. We can’t let one moment of the game determine the next 15 or 60 minutes.
“In the attack end we’re really clicking and working for each other but also down the whole court with the unit D and the ball our defence are getting, and the pressure that they are putting the other teams under, is just so cool. I’m really proud of all the effort so far.”
Last week’s seven-goal win over the Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse game was bittersweet given the Steel boasted a 12-goal lead heading into the final spell.
“I feel like it was quite weird because we finished that game and obviously bet the Pulse, who are such a strong side, and we weren’t stoked with our last quarter. We kind of walked off and went ‘ooh, that was a funky win’. We didn’t really celebrate it as much as we probably should have given how well we played for the first 45 minutes,” Heffernan said.
“It’s really promising how we have pretty high standards for ourselves now. We know that that win was great but we also know we actually can string together a 60 minute performance better than we did.
“We are stoked how we are putting our foot down at key moments in the one point game and not putting ourselves under pressure to catch up in the twos like we have in the past.
“A lot of it was figuring out our own X factors and how we can bring that when it gets a little bit hard, but also as a unit we’re looking at each other and we’re thinking the same thing so it’s really exciting to see what we can build from here. I’m really enjoying it.”
In an unusual draw twist, Steel will face the Pulse and the Magic twice each this month.
“It was a physical game against the Pulse and so we understand what we’re coming up against again next week but it’s a bit strange. I’m not sure if it is an advantage or a disadvantage, I guess there are pros and cons to it, but it will be interesting actually to see how much teams can change and adapt what they are doing in the two weeks between playing each other.”
