Netball: Defender joins Cup class

Tietie Aiolupotea completes another training session in the countdown to next month's Netball World Cup in Sydney. Photo / Duncan Brown

Tietie Aiolupotea will become the first Hawke's Bay netballer to play at a World Cup in eight years next month.

MAC Blue defender Aiolupotea, 19, will play as a defender for Samoa at the 16-team Sydney-hosted August 7-16 tournament. The last Bay World Cup players were the Cook Islands pair of former Taradale Fury midcourter Holly Solomona and former Physique 2000 goal attack Crystal Kavana who played at the 2007 event in Auckland.

Equally as talented a basketballer during her Hastings Girls' High School days, which ended in 2013 and saw her selected in the IMS Payroll Paul Henare and Paora Winitana Basketball Academy, Aiolupotea has got the appropriate reward for making netball her priority in recent years.

She had the ideal attitude at the start of the three-stage trial process for the Marcia Hardcastle-coached Samoan team which is made up entirely of Aussie and New Zealand-based players. The first stage was an open trial in Auckland in April, the second stage was for 30 players and at the final trial in Apia the travelling squad of 12 plus two non-travelling reserves was selected.

"While I was quite confident at the same time I wouldn't have been too disappointed if I had missed out. It still would have been a great learning experience for me," Aiolupotea said.

"Now I'm in the travelling 12, I want to push hard for a starting-seven position, which will be tough. I want to use the World Cup to try and earn a spot in an ANZ Championship team and remain in the Samoan team for the long haul."

Should Flaxmere's Aiolupotea fail to achieve these goals it won't be through a lack of commitment ... she has been putting in the hours. The Progressive Meats boning-room worker heads off to Choices Gym in Hastings at 4.30am each day for an hour before work and returns in the evening for another hour of training.

"I know we're in the pool of death in Sydney but we are still hoping for a top-10 finish," Aiolupotea said, referring to the fact the Samoans will meet defending champions Australia, regular semifinalists Jamaica and Scotland in pool play.

Hawke's Bay-based Central Pulse coach Tanya Dearns has had input into the Scotland team's buildup.

Samoa's buildup included a bronze-medal finish at the South Pacific Games, which finished in Port Moresby last month. Aiolupotea started in most of those games.

She comes from the Savaii island in Samoa and arrived in the Bay with her family as a 3-year-old. Aiolupotea took up netball as a 7-year-old and has played for MAC Blue at premier club level in the Bay for the past five years.

After her international experience in Sydney she is likely to be a key member of the Charissa Barham-coached Hawke's Bay senior team at their Wellington-hosted nationals in October.

"I don't want to think about nationals until the World Cup is over," Aiolupotea said.

Considering the enormity of her team's assignments, particularly against Australia and Jamaica and the quality of some of the goal shoots and goal attacks she will be marking, that approach is fair enough.

"I play goal keep most of the time here in the Bay but I know I won't be tall enough to play there at the World Cup so I'm expecting to be used mostly at goal defence," she said.