Netball: Coach bites bullet and saves title

By Richard Boock

CHRISTCHURCH - Australia's netballers would have been heading home empty-handed yesterday were it not for the audacity of their coach Jill McIntosh.

As New Zealand stretched their lead to six at the three-quarter mark in Saturday night's world championship final, the defending champions' coach decided to bite the bullet and pull her captain and goal-shoot, Vicki Wilson, from the court, sending in Jenny Borlase instead.

The switch worked so well that Australia was level with the Silver Ferns in a matter of minutes, and went on to win 42-41 courtesy of another substitute, goal-attack Sharelle McMahon, who nailed the last shot of the match in front of a capacity, 7000-strong crowd.

Neither the Australian nor New Zealand shooters could find any rhythm during the final, with Wilson (57.7 per cent) and Belinda Colling (55 per cent) having the biggest struggle, but McIntosh's changes made an immediate difference to her side.

It wasn't just that Borlase (69 per cent) and McMahon (75 per cent) shot a bit better, there was also far better movement in the Australian goal-shooting circle and as a consequence the pair found superior shooting position.

"It just had to be done," McIntosh said of pulling Wilson.

Wilson was not only the team captain but was also playing in her 99th test and - like centre Carissa Tombs - was retiring at the end of the match.

"We wouldn't have won if I hadn't made that change.

"It was very hard, but it's a team thing and we did what was right for the team."

Wilson spent the remainder of the game screaming herself hoarse on the bench as Australia stormed back into contention, and then pipped the Ferns in what McIntosh described as "an absolute classic".

"That was just one of the best ever," she said. "It's right up there beside the 1991 final [which Australia won by one goal as well]. I can remember [New Zealand captain] Wai Taumaunu saying afterwards that Australia might think they had won, but that the real winner was netball.

"I think the same thing's happened again.

"This final would have been huge for the game in Australia. Women's sport over there pales into insignificance compared with men's sport, but having the game going live throughout Australia would have given it a real boost."

McMahon said later that she blocked everything out of her head as she prepared to take the match-winning shot.

"I saw Donna [Loffhagen] miss with about 30 seconds to go so I knew there's wasn't much time left. As the ball came to me my mind just went totally blank, which was probably just as well because there was a lot of pressure out there."

New Zealand coach Yvonne Willering said New Zealand had enough possession to win the final, and refused to blame the loss on the previous night's torrid semi-final against Jamaica, the umpiring, or her shooters.

Choking back her emotions after the shock of seeing the title disappear in the space of a few seconds, Willering said the Ferns should have won.

"We all worked damn hard for this and I still reckon we deserved to win it," said Willering. "We had enough possession, we should have won, but you have to give credit to Australia - they came back so well.

"Eight seconds made the difference between whether I'd be sitting here smiling or not.

"I guess I could come up with 6000 reasons why it might have happened, but it's not going to make a difference to the score. We just froze at different times."

It was the third successive time in which New Zealand has lost to Australia by one goal in the world championships, the eighth time Australia have taken the title (or a share thereof), and the eighth occasion (out of 10) in which the transtasman rivals have finished first or second.

Australia 42 (V. Wilson 15 out of 26 shots, J. Delaney 12/18, J. Borlase 9/13, S. McMahon 6/8) New Zealand 41 (D. Loffhagen 30/42, B. Colling 11/20).