Netball: Anderson rediscovers Magic form

1.00pm

When Sydneysider Katrina Anderson packed her bags for a new life on this side of the Tasman, she was convinced her days of top flight netball were over.

Less than two years later, the former Australian under-19 player and Sydney Swift and Melbourne Kestrel midcourter is back, plucked from the obscurity of Te Puke's outside courts to ply her trade for Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic in this year's National Bank Cup.

Netball was firmly on the backburner when Anderson and future husband Jeremy returned to his roots in the Bay of Plenty, with the family kiwifruit orchard and gourmet food business taking priority.

"I had retired from netball in Australia, thought yeah, that's it, that I'd come over here, be a wife and do all those sorts of thing -- you know, move on," Anderson said.

"But now my heart is back in the game, I had lost it for a while but I'm loving it again here."

Things might not seem too different from her former playing days for Anderson with the growing international presence in the National Bank Cup.

This year Anderson will be one of four high profile Australians playing in New Zealand's premier domestic competition.

Former Australian captain Kathryn Harby-Williams is winding down an illustrious career with a stint at the Diamonds, while 2001 Australian squad member Natalie Avellino is turning out for defending champions the Southern Sting and 2002 Australian squad member Jo Morgan has teamed up with the Flyers.

Avellino and Morgan are great friends of Anderson's, the trio having played together at the Swifts where Anderson spent four years. She played against Harby-Williams for five years.

Anderson, 26, had a winning start to her New Zealand career when the Magic outclassed the Diamonds 48-40 in the first round of the National Bank Cup competition.

That was followed by an emphatic 59-37 win over the Rebels last weekend but Anderson admitted there were plenty of aspects of the team's game that needed tweaking.

While preparation and the intensity of matches were pretty much the same on both sides of the Tasman, Anderson said she found the New Zealand netball public more aware and knowledgeable.

"I've found that people have known me at places like the shops and things like that, where in Australia that doesn't tend to happen too much.

"Here the people follow the netball and they'll ask me about netball when I go out."

Captain Jenny-May Coffin was fulsome in her praise of Anderson's presence in the Magic line-up.

"She's come in with an impressive resume but she's so open to wanting to improve," Coffin said.

"For her it's fresh faces, it's a new start, a different atmosphere and that's exactly what she brings to the team as well -- a freshness, a different perspective which for us is awesome. That Australian style adds a strength to the team and we want to use what she's got to our advantage."

- NZPA