Netball: Ferns line-up settled but Colling fate in doubt

By RICHARD BOOCK

Netball's national league showpiece is unlikely to have much bearing on the Silver Ferns squad to be announced next week.

Whatever happens in the Coca-Cola Cup final on Saturday night, indications are that the New Zealand selectors have already settled on their squad to play Australia on June 20, and that only a last-minute injury will cause a rethink.

The panel's biggest concern involves not whether the Southern Sting or the Canterbury Flames carry off the silverware, but whether Ferns captain Belinda Colling can recover from surgery to join the side on June 15.

Colling's fitness and the make-up of the Kiwi shooting battery are the hot topics of interest surrounding the 2000 Silver Ferns, to be named in Auckland on Tuesday.

Coach Yvonne Willering said yesterday that the squad had been predominantly picked on form during the Coca-Cola Cup and that Saturday night's final could not be viewed in isolation.

"We would not have been doing our job if we were still making major decisions at this stage," she said. "The core of the side has been finalised and while there is still room for players to confirm our assessment, we are unlikely to change our mind on the strength of one match."

And, as much as the Sting-Flames showdown will provide an answer to the question of domestic supremacy, it is not expected to promote any solutions for the national selectors in any case.

Of last year's 12-strong world championship squad, mid-court utility Sonya Hardcastle has retired and Colling is battling injury, but all the remaining members are available and most are likely to hold their positions. For all that, questions remain over the squad's composition, including:

* If former South African captain Irene van Dyk is selected and Colling makes a miraculous recovery from injury, can Force shoot Teresa Tairi hold on to her place?

* Will Diamonds mid-courter Temepara George or Magic captain Jenny-May Coffin receive the nod as Hardcastle's replacement?

* Do Anna Veronese's blossoming talents at wing-defence make her a more useful bench player than Lorna Suafoa?

* If Colling is ruled out, will Bernice Mene or Lesley Nicol regain the captaincy?

Colling said in Dunedin yesterday that she had started swimming and biking immediately after her knee operation, but had not started running and was treating the recovery as a day-by-day proposition.

"I really hoped I would be back playing some basketball in the next couple of weeks, but I have not got on to a court yet and it is difficult to make predictions," she said.

It was a matter of increasing the loading on the knee, having physiotherapy and "seeing how it responds."

While the Otago goal-shoot remains sidelined, van Dyk is likely to be drafted in without any fuss. But if Colling recovers in time, Tairi's place could come under more scrutiny.

Despite regaining her touch in the past two matches, Tairi mostly struggled for rhythm while shooting 68 per cent during the Coca-Cola Cup, and appears to be the most vulnerable should all five contenders be available.

The dual for the mid-court vacancy seems a straightforward race between Kiwi training squad members Coffin and George, with the ability to provide quality back-up at wing-attack possibly looming as a decisive ingredient.

At the other end of the court, the Ferns' defence seems unlikely to be disturbed, although the 1.83m-tall Veronese carries some much-needed cover for wing-defence and could yet prove a bolter.