Yvonne Willering: Early days for great expectations

Yvonne Willering

With results come expectations. Based on last year's performance, a team such as the Steel will be judged to have been successful this year only if they make the top four and the Magic can only be successful if they win the championship.

Already there are whispers that the Magic will do so, having secured such a convincing win against the Swifts last weekend. Northern Mystics, while they lost their first game, were deemed to be back on track. However, after last weekend's performance, questions were raised about their overall strength and performance. But the competition has only just begun, with many games left to play. Many factors will come into play as the season progresses, with injury concerns already affecting a couple of teams.

Individual expectations also feature, one being shooting statistics and in particular those of Irene van Dyk.

Every shooter's ultimate goal is to achieve 100 per cent. But this should be seen as an end result and not as the most dominant element of their game, as such pressure could result in the shooter only opting to take close shots and never extending themselves beyond their comfort zone.

Irene is experienced enough to take this pressure, so is still prepared to take long shots if required to do so - with similar success. However, with her incredible leg split on taking the ball in the circle, she seldom needs to.

Although the public and media tend to focus on the scores each week, the players need to focus on performance and consistency, not just from game to game but also within each game played. Too often players become score focused, to the detriment of their performance on court. How often have we seen teams establish a lead early in a game, only to see it whittled away.

Surely rather than protecting a lead, it is better to continue with the performance that got you to that result in the first place.

The fact that the scoreboard is in your favour should inspire you to continue to play to the best of your ability. Often the intensity of a game is only maintained when the score is close.

The public also tends to become more vocal as the scores get closer. On the completion of the first quarter between the Magic and the Swifts, which the Magic won quite convincingly, the crowd went quiet for the remainder of the game.

Either they were in disbelief or decided that their team didn't need their vocal support after that, as the damage had been done.

So how do we judge the worth of a team? Is it through their performance, the skills shown on the court, or by the success factor, whether the team wins or loses?

There has been a lot of talk about differing umpiring interpretations between the two countries, but one rule that certainly caused havoc with two teams last weekend was to do with injury timeouts. Both teams ended up with only six players for a short period of time.

Although in both cases the situation didn't affect the outcome of the game, this could have been different had the scores been close. At this level, players should be aware of the rules and how they are to be applied, rather than relying on the umpires to sort out the situation.

Simply put, each team is entitled to one injury timeout in each quarter of the game, of up to two minutes.

Without going into great detail, both teams can make substitutions during this period, however the team calling the timeout can only do so if the player concerned is involved, either through substitution or change in position out on court.

With a second timeout call, the player calling the timeout has to leave the court and a substitute player needs to take the court, all within 30 seconds.

Failure to do so results in the game either starting without the player involved, with them re-entering the court once a goal is scored or the team being penalised for delaying play.

Round four of the competition sees every New Zealand franchise up against a team from Australia, with three games being played in Australia and two on New Zealand soil.

I can already hear a whisper that says "surely we can win one game across the Tasman".

The games between the Vixens and the Steel and the Magic and the Firebirds will give us the best indication of the relative strengths of the teams in this competition.

I look forward to a weekend of total transtasman rivalry.