Off the ball: Is this challenge tough enough, Ruth?

By RICHARD BOOCK

If Ruth Aitken is right when she says all coaches love challenges, she must have almost reached her own nirvana by now.

The Silver Ferns boss was thrust into the job in controversial circumstances late last year when she replaced Yvonne Willering, and has since found the going turbulent to say the least - a loss to Jamaica and a last-gasp defeat at the hands of Australia.

Now, with a couple of tests against South Africa looming and the all-important world championship campaign on the distant horizon, the former English teacher is having to deal with an exodus of her most experienced players.

First goal-defence Belinda Charteris signalled her intentions, then world-class goal-keep Bernice Mene pulled the pin, followed by her partner in arms Linda Vagana, shooter Donna Loffhagen and now fringe attack Tania Dalton.

Between them, the quintet played 250 tests for New Zealand in the past decade, experiencing the agonisingly narrow defeats against Australia and the shock of the upset loss to South Africa at the world championships in Birmingham in 1995.

There were many golden moments for them as well, but unlike their predecessors, the class of the 1990s will unfortunately be remembered as the Nearly Team, the side who took Australia to the brink of defeat on so many occasions, before being pipped at the final whistle.

For all that, all five were marvellous international competitors and developed such a hard edge from their tumultuous careers that they will almost certainly be badly missed when the world championships start in Jamaica next July.

And while Aitken could be forgiven for feeling aghast at the development, she has shown no sign of stress at this week's national championship tournament in Palmerston North. In fact, she seems to be thriving on the challenge.

About as positive and as optimistic as they come, she is acutely aware of the hard work facing her players over the next 10 months, but is in no doubt that New Zealand netball is strong enough to absorb the retirements.

In fact, it was the expectation that many senior players would soon depart that fuelled her desire to use most of her squad during last season's tour of Jamaica, a policy that attracted widespread criticism after the hosts won the first test.

In her own words, she could have either got to know seven of her players really well (many of whom would later retire) or she could have taken a more long-term view and played as many as possible.

As it happens, many of the stalwarts are now gone and the blooding experience in Jamaica last season seems more understandable, even if it did have something to do with the Ferns' historic loss.

"I did the right thing," she said during the week.

"In Jamaica we had to find out more about the players we had and, if we made any mistake, it was in not selling that point clearly enough."