Netball: 'Hot' coach out to sting Aussies

By RICHARD BOOCK

Triumphant Southland netball coach Robyn Broughton has already turned her attention to the Silver Ferns.

Only an hour after guiding the Sting to their second consecutive Coca-Cola Cup title, Broughton was brainstorming with her fellow New Zealand selectors over the composition of the team to play Australia, the results of which will be announced tomorrow.

Broughton, the Silver Ferns' new assistant coach, will join the New Zealand squad in 10 days for a brief training camp ahead of the one-off test against the world champions in Newcastle on June 20.

After watching the Sting edge out the Canterbury Flames 43-40 in the national league final on Saturday, the redoubtable Southlander reckons she is the ideal person to lend coach Yvonne Willering a hand.

"I'm hot off the press, I guess," she said yesterday in Invercargill. "I'm at the cutting edge of New Zealand netball, I'm living and breathing it at the moment and I hope that'll prove an asset.

"I'll be taking my lead from Yvonne and have a different role to play as assistant, but we share similar philosophies on the game and should complement each other."

Broughton said netball had evolved into a more physical contest, although whether she was thinking ahead to Newcastle or back to Saturday night's battle at Stadium Southland was not clear.

In front of 3300 expectant fans, the Sting managed to hold out the Flames' storming late charge during a fiercely-contested final notable for outstanding defence at both ends of the court and the closeness of the scores throughout.

Such was the difficulty forcing the ball through to the shooters that the teams went to the first-quarter break with an unusually low score, 9-5, to the Sting. The Southlanders managed to keep their noses ahead for the rest of the match, leading 21-18 at halftime and 33-30 at the three-quarter mark.

But for a blunder at the start and the finish of the showdown, the Flames might have spoiled the party. As it happened, Margie Foster's underdogs lacked a degree of composure when it mattered most and could not emulate the deeds of their beloved Crusaders.

Foster's gamble on starting Lisa Gregory at goal-shoot in tandem with Angela Evans was difficult to fathom given that she tried a similar experiment in the semifinal with Katie Ritchie, and was forced to revert to Sonia Butler in that game as well.

Butler, understandably looking hesitant when she was sent in on Saturday, then made a horrendous error in the last minute after the Flames had closed to within two, electing to play the ball back out of the circle instead of shooting, and having her pass intercepted.

A successful shot then, or a few moments before when Evans turned over possession in the circle, would have left the Sting passing off with only a one-goal lead and the best part of 30s on the clock - time for the Flames to have snatched another turnover and a last-gasp draw.

As it was, Bernice Mene capped off a huge game with an intercept and Donna Loffhagen converted the possession on the wire, leaving most of the Deep South delirious.