Century-old netball club Hastings High School Old Girls claimed its first top Hawke’s Bay netball championship in 24 years when the Huia beat Napier Girls’ High School 48-43 in the Super Club final on Friday night.
With only nine players all season, it came down to the domination of experienced goal shoot Judy Brown, who coach Rebecca Martin says dominated all season, and scored 41 of the 48 Huia points in the final, the winners stamping their mark in the middle stages after it was 11-11 at the end of the first quarter.
It was 25-19 at halftime and 41-32 at the end of the third quarter, and the teenage students from Napier fought back well as they battled to regain the title their school won in 2018 and 2019.
They closed the gap to two points with just over two minutes to play before the Huia, who hadn’t won the title since 2000 and hadn’t played in the final since about 2016, scored the last three nets of the showdown on the No 7 court at the Rodney Green Foundation events centre, alongside the Pettigrew Green Arena in Taradale.
Defending champions All In: Elusive and multiple title-winning club Ōtāne, each eliminated in the semifinals after years of dominating the competition, played an exciting match in the unusual role of a third and fourth-place playoff, with All In winning 39-36.
In a competition expanded this year from eight to 12, creating a two-division championship, HHSOG Kea, including Huia coach Martin, won the section B final, beating Havelock North 50-36.
Martin said the Huia had to make do with a squad of nine throughout the season, including the doctor-doctor pair of returning player Louise Calder and new-to-the-area Racheal Horrocks, and Millie Hannan, who had transferred from Marist.
The numbers were even worse off when Calder tore a calf muscle in the opening weeks, and the Huia did default one game to All In: Elusive. They were also beaten 46-37 by All In: Elusive in their top-section match, but had beaten Ōtāne 50-49 in section play, and then 40-30 in the semifinals.
There was little between the Huia and NGHS earlier in the season, playing a 43-43 draw on May 24, and Napier won their July 26 top-section game 48-47.
“Everyone’s got a lot of game time, and that was a real strength,” said Martin, but it did leave the team without “fresh legs” later in the final, a situation on which the younger Napier team were able to capitalise as they made their late bid for victory, including three successive steals by NGHS goal defence Suraiya Rewi in the circle to keep her side in the hunt.
Martin said her goal at the start of the season was to make players want to return next year and hopefully to attract more players.
The Huia team, managed by 2023 players and now expectant mums Jade Chapman and Alice Doole, comprised Victoria Anstis, Judy Brown, Natalie Brown, Louise Calder, Molly Deighton, Millie Hannan, Racheal Horrocks, Tegan Mansfield and Danielle Pearce.