Netball: Magic work hard to iron out chinks

Written off by many already, there is no sense of despair hanging over the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic camp despite their winless start to the transtasman netball season.

Stumbling to three successive losses has left the Magic as the only team yet to record a win and languishing at the bottom of the table.

And it's not about to get any easier for last year's semifinalist when they make a second trip across the Tasman in a week to play the table-topping Melbourne Vixens on Sunday.

"I wouldn't recommend what we're going through but we have been forced to really learn about why we have failed thus far and not get scared or beat ourselves up about it too much," Magic coach Noeline Taurua said.

"It is important to not get too emotionally charged with the situation but rather keep focused on the processes and strategies that we want to implement."

Showing glimpses of their ability, Magic turned on their best performance of the season in the two-goal loss to NSW Swifts in their latest outing as the soul searching continued.

"Because of where we are (on the table) we have been forced to really critique ourselves and pull to bits why we're doing certain things and how we are going to fix it," she said.

"Our start to the season has put us into new territory and forced us to examine ourselves like never before."

A positive for Taurua was being able to stick with the same seven for the entirety of the match, which included the versatile Jess Tuki adding another position to her resume when playing out the game at wing defence.

Taurua has tinkered with her midcourt this season but looks to have settled on captain Laura Langman and Australian import Khao Watts as the centre/wing attack combination with Tuki impressing enough to stay at wing defence.

The strength of Tuki and Casey Williams in carting the ball through court gave the attacking line more impetus and flow.

Vixens return to Melbourne for their first home game of the season following three impressive wins on the road and have everything stacked in their favour.

For the Magic, it's a simple message of being the best that they can be.

"Our mindset is to be in a good space and play attacking netball with a view to winning," Taurua said. "We know that we are improving and we've just got to stay strong as a team and keep believing in what we're doing."