Netball: Magic looking for triple over Tactix

Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic's Monica Falkner, right, and Southern Steel's Jane Watson. PHOTO/FILE A_140517sp12.JPG

Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic will be hoping that good, as well as bad, things come in threes tonight at Claudeland's Arena in Hamilton.

After three losses on the trot, the Magic will be looking to extend their own winning streak over the Tactix to three this season.

In their last ANZ Premiership outing, the Magic surprisingly lost 55-50 to Northern Stars in Manukau.

Magic's Monica Falkner said it was a physical game and the team was put off its stride.

"We went out there not expecting it to be so physical and I don't think that as a team we handled it as well as we could have, which was reflected in our game," she said. "We made silly errors that we don't normally make."

Training last week was a direct response to the loss.

"We had a training [session] where we've had no rules, so it was contact as much as you like and it was about how much we could handle that and what sort of decisions we made under pressure.

"I think it was a good training, there was good intensity and because we expected it, we just carried on. We normally expect calls from umpires when it goes like that, but when they don't go our way, we just need to carry on."

Falkner said the issue was as much a mental one as anything else.

"I think you can have all the skills in the world but if you can't cope under that sort of pressure and can't dig yourself out of holes, then you're never going to go up. And if you get down, it's real hard to come out of it, so the mental game is real important for us and we've been working really hard on that as well."

The loss to the Northern Stars contrasted to the game before where Falkner said that, although it was a loss to the Steel, the side put in a good performance.

"We lost by about the same [to Northern Stars], but we didn't put in a good performance.
Now we need to get back to our normal Magic I guess and get our team flow back."

Last week Falkner was named in the final 12-strong New Zealand Under-21 squad to compete in the Netball World Youth cup in July and said she was excited by the prospect.

"It's real exciting. We are going to Botswana, which is somewhere I've never been, and I'm not likely to ever go again."

Tonight's game at Claudelands Arena starts at 7.40pm.