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| Image courtesy of Zimbio.com |
For the second year running the Fast 5 Ferns have claimed
the title defeating the young Australian Flyers 56-27, but before we get to it
lets recap some of the earlier matches from the final day of competition.
The first semi final saw the Fast 5 Ferns taking on South
Africa for the first place in the Final and both teams had a tentative start to
the match, reverting back to the traditional style of play, opting for the safety
of 1 point goals. Early on Maria Tutaia didn’t look as comfortable as she had
been during the competition but still the Ferns clawed their way back into the
game and headed into the 3rd quarter with a 13 – 12 lead. However in
the South African powerplay as we saw once again the formidable Ferns defense
kick into gear, not conceding a single point and setting up their own powerplay
quarter to finish off the match. Even
with the rolling subs used throughout the match by the Ferns coaching staff,
the combination of the circle defenders be it Casey Kopua and Katrina Grant or
Selby-Rickitt and Kopua, neither combination missed a beat and continued the
pressure flawlessly. The Ferns simply used the powerplay to gain the simple 1
point shots and eventually went on to win the match 27-14.
A rematch of the only draw in the competition to date saw
the Sunshine Girls face off against the Australian Flyers for the remaining place
in the final. As we saw in their encounter yesterday a tough, and tighly
contested match eventuated on court with each of the teams powerplays the deciding
factor. As we saw in the first semi final match both teams started the game
tentatively and kept to the traditional movements and passes from the 7 aside
game to get the scoreboard ticking away. Romelda Aiken, in the GK position, continued
to disrupt and keep the pressure on the Australian attackers with her imposing
reach over the shot particularly against Tegan Caldwell who continued to
struggle with her shooting despite some beautiful movement throughout the
court. The Sunshine girls couldn’t contain the Australian’s enough in the final
quarter, the powerplay for the Flyers and eventually conceded the match 27-25.
The Malawi Queens and England played off for 5th
and 6th spot, a disappointing finish for England, dropping down from
2nd place last year. Mwai Kumwenda continued her impressive form and
continued to slot the goals for her team, particularly when double points were
on offer, forcing England to shoot long to stay in contention. As we saw from
England throughout the competition they struggled on attack, in particular in
the shooting stats and just couldn’t gain any momentum to push ahead. Rosie
Allison was the best of the English shooters from the 3 point zone slotting
5/10, including 4 in the final quarter but it was too little too late. The Queens
were able to force England into 18 turnovers while only conceding 10 themselves
to get the win 34-32.
Jamaica and South Africa for the second year running
contested the bronze medal match, with the Sunshine Girls the heavy favourites.
Restricting the South African shooters to only 8 points in their powerplay set
up a big finish from the Jamaicans with Bootha and Holtzhausen really
struggling to find the hoop on several occasions. Down the other end of the
court, the lethal combination of Jhanielle Fowler and Tristina Harwood in goals
with a brief cameo appearance from Vanessa Walker saw the Jamaicans notch up 26
points and in the process well and truly wrapping up the match in their 3rd
quarter powerplay with one quarter remaining. The Sunshine Girls went on to win
the match 44-17 going one better than last year moving up the table finishing 3rd.
As expected the final of Fast 5 saw the Fast 5 Ferns bring
their dance moves to the court and really got the crowd pumped for a great game
to decide this year’s title against Australia. It has to be said that anytime
New Zealand and Australia face off in any sporting contest it always takes the
intensity up another notch and this was certainly the case in the final. An evenly matched first quarter saw Australia
start the better of the two teams with Carla Dziwoki slotting 2 goals in the 2
point range, however both teams went into the break 6 goals a piece. For the
Ferns it only went up from there.
The star of the competition and key member of
the Ferns attack line Maria Tutaia wentabout a shooting spree slotting 2/3 at
the 3 point zone and setting up a mammoth 3rd quarter with the
powerplay. The Australian defence end of Demelza McCloud and Courtney Bruce did
the best they could to contain the Ferns attack end but as we saw throughout
the competition there isn’t a lot many defenders can do against the impressive
shooting of Tutaia when she is in the long zone. Down the attack end for
Australia they struggled to find their range and could only mange 6 points from
the 1 point zone. In possibly the highest scoring single quarter of the
competition to date the Ferns closed the game out with a whopping 34 points,
5/8 at the 3 point line from both Maria Tutaia and Cat Latu . The Australian
defenders and centre court players did as much as they could to restrict the
outer circle access for the Ferns but it just wasn’t enough. The final score
56-27 saw the Fast 5 Ferns retained their title for the second year running and
continuing their impressive form in the shortened version of the game since
2009.
Shooting Stats
Maria Tutaia - 3/3 one point zone, 1/1 two point zone, 6/8
three point zone
Cat Latu – 8/8 one point zone, 2/6 three point zone
Anna Thompson – 2/4 one point zone 0/1 two point zone
Susan Pratley – 2/3 one point zone, 2/3 two point zone, 1/6
three point zone
Carla Dziwoki – 1/1 one point zone, 2/3 two point zone, 0/3
three point zone
Tegan Caldwell – 3/3 one point zone
Gretel Tippett – 3/3 one point zone, 0/3 two point zone, 1/2
three point zone
For the young Australians as mentioned post match by
co-captain Demelza McCloud, the experience that some of the younger players
received, with even a couple of girls not yet played a single minute of ANZ
Championship game time will be immense, being able to have played, briefly
against some of New Zealand’s best players is a great asset to them and they
should be very proud of their efforts across the 3 day tournament, turning
their last place finish in last years competition to a runners up spot in 2013.
All the action on and off the court saw once again a
fantastic competition held with fantastic netball skills, great rebounding,
flashy intercepts and of course some sensational shooting as well as outrageous
dance moves it seemed as though both players and spectators appeared to have
enjoyed the weekend.
The end of Fast 5 sees the end of the 2013 Netball calendar
with now the players turning their attention towards 2014 ANZ Championship with
pre season kicking off for most next month.
I hope you have all enjoyed the competition on court as much
as I have as well as the game day reviews.
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