Netball: Protagonists on road to redemption

Goal defence Anna Cudby puts her feelers out to Central teammates in the face of HGHS Senior A arms forces during their Super 8 at the PG Arena, Taradale, last night. Photo/Paul Taylor

Well, it's time for the protagonists to redeem themselves after some interesting speculation leading up to the final round of the Super 8 netball in Napier last night.

Table-topping Otane Thirsty Whale will face fourth-placed NGHS Senior A in one semifinal while second-placed HHSOG Proactive Huias will reload against All In Elusive on Friday next week.

"Mmm ... we'll have to redeem ourselves now, won't we?" was the response from a chuckling Otane player-co-coach, Tammy Kupa, soon after they crushed defending champions Outkast Optimise Physio 55-34 to throw NGHS a lifeline.

NGHS, who were equally ruthless in dispensing HHSOG Spicers Keas 63-32, went into a nail-biting final round under a cloud of speculation that Otane had "thrown" their previous round clash because of Kupa's sisterly ties with NGHS coach Annemarie Kupa.

However, it wasn't too nervous a wait for the schoolgirls when Otane again gave them a historic playoffs berth in the maiden season when NGHS and Hastings Girls High School Senior A made their debut in HB Netball's premier competition.

"It's a chance for us to go prove ourselves so it's going to be a good game," said Tammy Kupa who felt last night's game against Outkast again had a flat feeling about it.

"We still haven't got that hungriness back, not that I want to take anything away from Outkast because it didn't feel like we'd won that much."

NGHS, she said, were young and had a never-say-die attitude.

Annemarie Kupa said her teenagers deserved to be in the mix and welcomed the razor-edge final round although it was always ideal to be the architects of one's own success rather than relying on other outcomes.

"All that speculation about Otane giving the game to us - if we had our full team when we had played the likes of All In, Central and Huias we would have wasted them all as well," she said. "It was the first time we had our full squad play in the comp."

NGHS had beaten Outkast by 15 goals but no one had speculated then, she said.

Huias and All In registered an exciting 35-35 stalemate, something All In assistant coach Adrienne Morrin said happened a lot.

"Particularly at this time of the year when you're getting close to the finals," said Morrin after All In led 9-7 in the first quarter, went 20-15 at halftime before Huias announced their arrival to lead 26-25 in the third spell.

She said All In missed some shots to give Huias a sniff but lauded her defence.

Huias coach Rebecca Martin said it was physical and both sides were eager in a great game.

"We took a while to adjust to things so we're happy with that," said Martin, revealing they were missing centre Abby Hall.

HGHS Senior A beat Central Sports Vet Services HB 47-36.

Fifth-placed Outkast will play Central for fifth/sixth placing, pipping HGHS on goal ratio despite both sides registering two wins each on eight points.

Seventh-placed Hastings schoolgirls face last-placed Keas in the tussle for seventh-eighth positions on Friday next week.

Final playoff standings: 1st Otane 24pts, 2nd HHSOG Huias 22, 3rd All In Elusive 18, 4th NGHS 17.