Netball: Coaching stable bank on skills of midwifery

It's all about delivering this week for Hawke's Bay senior netballers but, it seems, the coaching stable is in some respects under more pressure than the players.

Assistant coach Annemarie Kupa-Petera is due to have her third child on October 16 - her first boy - but there's some trepidation bundles of joy tend to arrive when mothers least expect them to.

"I've got a friend who was expecting her baby in four weeks' time but she had her's last week so you just never know," Kupa-Petera said with a laugh last night from Wellington where the Hastings Pak'N Save-sponsored Bay team are for the start of the week-long National Championship today.

However, what's reassuring for Kupa-Petera is that Bay coach Charissa Barham has done a midwifery course while apprentice Lisa Tod "has delivered babies before" should nature take its course before Friday at the Netball Wellington Centre.

The thought of a Wellingtonian in the family did amuse her ("Oh, we definitely want her to be a Hawke's Bay baby") but she had gone prepared with her Bay parents, Sue and Russell Kupa, also handy if required.

"I've got everything I need - the baby bag and all the maternity stuff - if we need to rush off to Wellington Hospital."

Suffice it to say Kupa-Petera reckoned it wouldn't happen and she didn't want her expectancy to detract from what the players were about to deliver in the quest for the New Zealand Cup in the 17-team tourney in the next five days.

The Katarina Cooper-captained Bay will take on Dunedin, Wanganui, Hutt Valley and North Harbour in pool play in the first two days with the aim of a top-three finish before moving into crossover play.

This is the first Bay senior team to be fielded since the amalgamation of the Napier, Hastings and Central Hawke's Bay centres in December 2012.

It concerned Barham that the Bay, in pool B, the only one with five teams, had a short turnaround during the two-day pool phase.

"We've done some analysis and found out we are playing three games in 19 hours," she said as the Bay play North Harbour at 2.30pm and Dunedin at 8pm today before facing Hutt Valley at 9am tomorrow.

"In all the years I've been playing and coaching I've never had that sort of turnaround."

Needless to say, her pleas to Netball New Zealand to make player welfare paramount didn't find traction.

Former NZ Under-21 teammates Cooper and Becky Kupa are the foundation of a youthful Bay team.

GA Kirby Heath picked up a knee injury last week but they recruited Wellington-based Lizzie Sandon, a former Sport HB employee.

"Lizzie won't play the first game because she's involved with the tournament," Barham said, revealing midcourter Candis Timms withdrew due to work obligations thus enabling Abby Breakwell to enter the fray.