Glory comes to those who wait as All In: Elusive celebrate a 41-37 win over Ōtāne in the Hawke's Bay Netball Super 8 Premier final in Taradale on Wednesday night. Photo / Paul Taylor
Glory comes to those who wait as All In: Elusive celebrate a 41-37 win over Ōtāne in the Hawke's Bay Netball Super 8 Premier final in Taradale on Wednesday night. Photo / Paul Taylor
One of the long near-miss waits for the ultimate prize ended with All In: Elusive’s win in Hawke’s Bay Netball’s Super 8 final on Wednesday night at the Pettigrew Green Arena in Taradale.
In the top competition for more than a decade, Elusive, based at the Regional Sports Park inHastings, scored a 41-37 win over perennial finalist and regular winner Ōtāne, who were gunning for a fourth title in a row since Napier Girls High School’s brace in 2018-2019.
Among the beaten finalists over the years - including a 58-46 loss last year and 51-50 in 2021 - started to dominate Ōtāne towards the end of the first quarter, and led 25-19 at halftime and by a match-high eight points at 35-27 at the end of the third quarter.
Amid all the excitement, there was some special emotion for coach Kataraina Rowe, who had started playing with the club at the age of 13 and rose to Hawke’s Bay representative honours before being struck down by a brain tumour, ending her playing career in her early 20s.
All Inn: Elusive teammates Rhandelle Tangaere and Candis Timms in their moment of elation after being in the first team to beat Ōtāne in a Hawke's Bay Netball Super 8 final in 16 years. Photo / Paul Taylor
Commenting on the emotion, team manager Honey Amner - regarded as the “mother” of the club, but who has never played the game, doesn’t “even like it” and is best-known for her own pursuits in touch and rugby - said: “Definitely. The difficulties they’ve been through, she’s been there all the way.”
Rowe had had her own mother, Joanne Rowe, as assistant, and Amner said: “The club is all about family, whānau. Our girls like to have their mums nearby.”
All In: Elusive coach Kataraina Rowe and club "mother" Honey Amner. Photo / Paul Taylor
The “girls” are a particularly busy lot, with three of the match-night squad - Tietie Aiolupotea, Leykin Rowlands, and Lua Semisi - also members of the well-performing Hawke’s Bay Tui Farah Palmer Cup national women’s rugby championship squad, who play Counties Manukau in Pukekohe on Saturday.
Candis Timms (Amner’s daughter) immediately switches into another mode with a New Zealand Touch camp in Auckland this weekend. She was one of three mixing sports with the duties of infant mothering, with a 7-month-old in tow. Team captain Kathleen Nahora has a 6-month-old, and Rhandelle Tangaere has a 1-year-old.
The game goes on, under the keen eye of umpire Jono Bredin, who is also a rugby NPC first division referee. Photo / Paul Taylor
Mixing the challenges, Rowe started early, putting more than two months into pre-season, building around the core of a stable team over recent years with new talent. That includes goal defence Galilee Hiko, in her first year out of Hastings Girls’ High School, and others from club development project the Mavericks, making All In: Elusive the only club with two teams in the Super 8.
For the first time, Elusive won all nine games, including beating Ōtāne 43-30 two weeks ago in the last night of the seven-week round-robin leading into the playoffs.
The club had grown team-by-team each year since being developed around a group of touch footballers, which included remnants of former club Physique who were looking for a team to play their netball in together.
Those who played in the winning team were: Kathleen Nahora (captain), Rhandelle Tangaere, Candid Timms, Danielle Pomare-McKay, Charlotte Wilkins, Galilee Hiko, Leykin Rowlands, Tietie Aiolupotea. Subs and other squad members: Jane Huia, Lua Semisi, Briah McGrail-Timms, Peta Heather.
In Wednesday’s playoff for third and fourth, Waipukurau-based Central beat Hastings High School Old Girls 41-35, while All In’s first men’s team, the Kings, were beaten 28-22 by Toki Incorporated in the men’s league final.
In the Pettigrew Green Arena on Tuesday, Napier Girls’ High School beat Havelock North High School 42-19 in Division 1 of the Super Secondary Schools competition, while Karamu High School beat Hastings Girls’ High School 38-27 in the Division 2 final.
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 50 years of journalism experience in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
