The young, but confident Central Pulse started the ANZ Premeirship season with a bang after defeating the Southern Steel. Photo / Getty Images
The young, but confident Central Pulse started the ANZ Premeirship season with a bang after defeating the Southern Steel. Photo / Getty Images
The Central Pulse are "fearlessly" proving that experience isn't all that counts on the ANZ Premiership scene.
Despite being the youngest team in the league, the pre-season favourites pulled off a stunning win over defending champion the Southern Steel on Monday night at Fly Palmy Arena.
And at the coreof the Pulse's striking victory were two young shooters who are quickly taking the New Zealand netball world by storm.
Still fresh to the court, 18-year-old Aliyah Dunn and 17-year-old Tiana Metuarau proved their worth in the opening round of the ANZ Premiership with a combined 94 percent hit rate that put a decisive 11 point end to the Steel's 17-game win streak.
Entering the pre-season with limited experience under their belts, Dunn and Metuarau were fortunate enough to receive guidance from former Silver Fern and netball legend Irene van Dyk.
Van Dyk, who is the most capped international player of all time, has committed at least 30 minutes a week to the Pulse this season as a shooting specialist coach.
Aliyah Dunn made her ANZ Premiership debut in 2017 and toured with the NZU21 team to Fiji earlier in January. Photo / Getty Images
Van Dyk worked closely with both Dunn and Metuarau during the Premiership pre-season, describing the pair as "intelligent players".
The netball great said although experience was important, Dunn and Metuarau's freshness to the court was playing to their advantage, as many of the other franchises have not yet had a chance to analyse their play.
"I think their inexperience and their fearlessness I think counts a lot for them," van Dyk told the Herald.
"You don't know what you don't know, so at the moment they just play to one another's strengths and just love what they do and you can see it on the court, they feed off one another."
"Both of them are intelligent players, Tiana is more the vocal one who will run and yell to Aliyah to say what she is going to do and Aliyah is more reactive to what Tiana does."
This season, the Pulse line-up features four players under the age of 19 - three of which are still high-school students.
And with no import, Pulse captain Katrina Grant stands as the only player with an extensive amount of international netball experience.
Netball great Irene van Dyk played 145 tests for the Silver Ferns. Photo / Getty Images
Although the young talent in the team is inadmissible, van Dyk said it was still very important that the Pulse continued to utilise their more experienced players to support the younger combinations on court.
Van Dyk said the support of Silver Fern shooter Ameliaranne Ekenasio was particularly critical in anchoring Dunn and Metuarau, both in the circle and from the sideline.
"I think experience counts for a lot when the tough situations come and those critical situations appear, that is when you need the experience to settle things down," van Dyk said.
"I think having Ameliaranne in there just gives the girls some stability."
"Even if Ameliaranne doesn't play, she shares so much knowledge and she encourages incredibly well, she is there giving guidance and reaffirming them when they are doing things well and just keeps telling them what the next focus is."
Although van Dyk said it was too early for her to tell whether this year could be the season we see the Pulse finally claim the ANZ Premiership title, she had high hopes for her home franchise.
The Pulse will face the Mainland Tactix on Monday night in Wellington for their first game of round two.
