On the Record: Silver Fern Jodi Tod

Silver Fern poster girl. Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic hotshot. Papamoa local. Chef extraordinaire? Jodi Tod is just as competitive on the court as she is off it and a dab hand with a roasting pan.

Things are heating up in Papamoa and if you enjoy a good roast, Jodi Tod's house is a safe bet for dinner.
The 30-year-old says the television lives on the cooking channel at her place, and away from the netball court she's gearing up for a competition of a different kind.
Tod and her police constable fiance, Dan Elliott, are getting ready to compete against other couples in a Western Bay rendition of the TV2 show My Kitchen Rules and she tells me: "You can say we're out to win it," adding with confidence that their chances are "pretty high".
Her signature dish is "a good roast".
The contest, pitted against three other couples, runs through to August. Each couple has to cook a three-course "themed" meal and the friends judge one another on the dishes.
Good luck to her.
Constantly getting recognised

"I know, thanks," she says with a grin. "I said 'are we going to be friends after this?' It gets a little bit dangerous."
Shopping for the groceries could be an interesting experience. The Magic defence player is constantly getting recognised. It doesn't help that she stands out in a crowd - she measures a soaring 179cm.
"I get recognised by a lot of kids, which can be quite funny. You're shopping, and you know how you see somebody from Shortland Street or somebody famous? You go to say 'hi' and they realise they don't actually know you. You see them click," she chuckles.
Tod has just played her fourth season for Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic, clocking up a total of 51 games.
A little bit more drive
"It is quite a lot considering Irene (van Dyk) and Casey (Williams), they actually hit 100 this year but this is also their ninth year with Magic."
Tod has been playing netball since she was 5. She carried on when she became a mother at 17, leaving school during Year 13 and continuing to live at home.
Her parents were a "bit shocked and worried" that it would stop Tod from doing what she wanted to do but with their support, she became a star.
"It gave you a little bit more drive because you wanted to prove people wrong," she says.
Being a teen mum taught Tod to be extremely organised.
"When you train you train for a purpose and it makes you really organised - packed lunches, packed dinners. I wanted to make sure my daughter didn't miss out.
"I've taken her lots of places and she's gone to training. We went to the UK and I played over there for six months."
Her daughter, Emerson, now 12, is her number one fan and, according to one friend, Tod has raised her to be "mature beyond her years" and down to earth.
Has Tod proved her critics wrong?
"Yeah, I think so. When people see my little side-kick turn up, they say 'you're serious? You've done all that?'
"I was kind of like one of those ones who went to school to play sport and it (netball) wasn't my main sport. I was playing cricket, volleyball. I never said 'I love this sport the most'."
Emerson, who is head girl of Mount Maunganui Intermediate, is proud of her mum.
"Yes, even though I think at one stage she was the ball girl and said Casey was her favourite player," Tod laughs.
After playing club and rep netball in "the other Bay" - Hawke's Bay - she was named in the New Zealand under-21 squad and then played for the Flyers for four years. She moved to Canterbury, played for the Flames and then headed to the Mount. In 2008/09, she was in the squad for the Silver Ferns but didn't play any games.
"I'm on the poster, that's all I can say."
Was that disappointing?
"I think it was. You always strive to play for the Silver Ferns but it was also an excitement (just) to be there as well."
We'll bring the World Cup home

How does she think our national team are performing?
"They've performed well. I'm a little bit worried about the depth and whether we have as much depth as Australia but I think we'll bring the World Cup home."
Has she always played defence?
"Yes. I've started to not only get old, but get shorter. The shooters seem to be getting taller so I've come out ... I used to play that goal keep/goal defence now I'm only goal defence/wing defence."
Tod is pretty modest for a sports star and gives back to her community. She works for Netball Bay of Plenty in coach development and coaches two school teams - Bethlehem Senior A and her daughter's Mount Maunganui Intermediate Year 8 A team. Both teams are currently unbeaten.
Tod admits that she's sometimes a little harsher on Emerson.
"Unfortunately, she's playing shooter and I'm a defender. I find the pressure probably gets to me more than it gets to her."
Away from work, she's planning her January 21, 2012, wedding to her partner of two-and-a-half years, on a Mauao ledge, overlooking the water.
Peta Scholz, who played with Tod for Magic and now lives in Adelaide, says a competitive Tod is gearing up for her "wedding of the year" and "hoping for a horse and cart, closed streets and a guard of honour as per Kate and Wills".
"She is a lovely friend and one I know I will have for a very long time ... As far as quirky stories go, none really come to mind that are newsworthy and the others involve alcohol. Having said that, Jodi is a bit of a teetotaller. We would often sit in our hotel room after a game and debrief with a cup of tea. She is a very funny girl - deceivingly funny - and would have me in stitches often.
"She always fell asleep in the car when I drove to training at Hamilton or Te Awamutu, not a fantastic passenger."
Tod celebrated her 30th birthday this year - "I'm in the upper (age) tier. It's a little bit sad when that starts happening," she bemoans.
Most people are supportive

All sports players have a lifespan, what is it for netball players?
"Well, I don't know you see. I feel my life span's had it.
"I don't know if that's just when you hit a certain age, but all your friends are going out for dinner and you're like 'oh, I've got a game tomorrow so I'll just have water'. You just miss out on so many things. Over that whole season, you probably can't go to any weddings, all those things, if they're in that time. Most weekends, we're away playing."
The latest season has finished and Tod is keeping tight-lipped on what's next. She is one of three Magic players who live in the Western Bay.
"Right now is the contracting stage and in that really difficult can't talk about it stage. I've had so many reporters ring up and I say 'I can't say anything' for me it's just sitting down with family and deciding where to next."
She said overall the team performed well during the last season. "To keep a semifinal spot was good but some games we let slip too easy," she admits.
Being watched by the public is something Tod is used to. Occasionally, she "cops" it from the media.
"When you hear it from your family and friends you just take it but when you read it or hear it from randoms. I know Irene (van Dyk) was walking down the street after the Firebirds game and she got told she was 'way too old and she should give up playing' by this old man."
On the whole though, most people are supportive.
She says while fans love the games on television, she can't bring herself to watch them.
Toughest team at moment

"I don't like watching myself because sometimes you'll feel you played really well and then you watch it and you're like 'why didn't you get that?' 'Look what you did'."
She will however watch games of the teams Magic are about to play.
"The toughest team at moment are the Firebirds - they did go unbeaten. It's pretty hard when you come up to the shooters' armpits".
Tod is pretty tall though.
"If we line up with height in our team, I'm in the middle. Irene's the tallest - about 188cm and she's turning 39 this year too, so I don't know how long the lifespan of a netball player is."
When the season's on, training is six days a week, split between Tauranga and Hamilton.
Outside the season, Tod keeps busy with wedding preparations and coaching.
"Since Magic's finished I don't think I've had a week off netball."
Despite my best efforts to find out if Tod has any vices or skeletons in the closet, she says "not that I know of".
"After a few wines I definitely like to dance but no, no vices."
Friend Vicki Leopold says Tod is fairly inspirational when it comes to motivation levels and is a fantastic mother.
"Her energy and what she gives back to all the children. It amazes me when her schedule is so full on."
Outside of work and sport, Leopold says Tod is very funny and loves movies, Pilates, wine and a good boogie. "She's found the perfect match to keep up with her in Dan."
Also keeping her busy is her dog Opi. "Don't look at the windows," she laughs, which in the lounge have been smeared by an inquisitive outside resident.
Opi, the "staffi with bull mastiff and maybe Labrador as well" has been a resident of the Tod/Elliott household for six months after someone found him abandoned in Athenree and he was put up for adoption.
"Look at my couch. He makes himself comfy when no one's home. I like a dog that listens."