Netball: Force happy, Cometz jubilant

By RICHARD BOOCK

There was good and bad news for the Force netballers today after a series of upset results blew the national league race wide open.

On a positive note, the North Harbour franchise finished the weekend at the top of the National Bank Cup standings, a result of their hard-fought 54-50 win over the Diamonds and a major upset in Dunedin yesterday, when the Rebels beat the defending champions the Sting.

On the other hand, the Force's next assignment will be against the buoyant Rebels, followed by a match against a Sting side who are likely to be as mad as a cat that's just been robbed of its mouse.

The Sting were unable to deal with the intensity of the Rebels in Dunedin, trailing by up to four goals for most of the match before going down 50-48 in what was one of the round's biggest upsets.

It was the Invercargill team's first defeat in 14 consecutive league matches.

Another turn-up was at the Queens Wharf Events Centre in Wellington, where the Counties Manukau-Cometz upset the Shakers 55-44, their first win in three years, or 21 league matches.

The win could not have come at a better time for the Cometz, one of the teams widely tipped to miss the cut if a Netball New Zealand review panel should choose to reduce the number of league teams.

Cometz coach Ana Noovao hit back at her detractors yesterday, saying some of the criticism levelled after her side's 51-goal loss to the Sting in the first round was unfair and uninformed.

"I thought a lot of the comment was naive and that the people making it were lacking in knowledge," Noovao said last night.

"The criticism was coming from people who clearly lacked understanding of the game or the issue.

"The publicity would have affected our players; I know some of them were offended, but I told them just to put it aside and concentrate on the challenge in front of them."

She said almost everything possible had gone wrong the previous week in Invercargill and that yesterday's win had put her side's ability in perspective.

The latest batch of results has left the Force as the only unbeaten team in the league and at the top of the competition ladder, three points clear of the Diamonds and the Sting, and four clear of the Magic, Flames, Rebels and Cometz.

Force and former New Zealand goal-keep Linda Vagana said her side was not putting any store in the league standings yet, and was seeking clear improvement after Saturday's close win over the Diamonds.

"We're happy we won but we don't think we played that well against the Diamonds, and we know we're going to have to step up for the double-header this weekend," said Vagana.

"Playing the Rebels and the Sting isn't the easiest of double-headers going around so we know we need to give far more if we're to keep winning. We can't afford to play like we did on Saturday night.

"We haven't seen the best of the Force yet, but hopefully we won't have to wait much longer."

Having made a slow start to the game, the Force trailed 16-14 at the end of the first quarter, eased ahead 28-27 at the halfway point and seemed to have the result in the bag when they led 43-37 at the end of the third period.

Further south, the Rebels bounced back from last weekend's disappointment against the Diamonds to shade the Sting through most of the game, at one stage blasting out to a four-goal advantage in the final quarter.

Lois Muir's franchise took the first quarter 14-12, went to the halftime break with the scores locked at 23-23 and edged ahead again to lead 36-34 at the three-quarter mark.

In a game marked by close-marking and a lot of contact, the Sting appeared to be shown up by the Rebels in terms of concentration and discipline, at times becoming distracted by personal contests and umpiring calls.

The Rebels earned their win on the back of a tireless defensive effort from Anna Scarlett and Stephanie Bond, some terrier-like work through the mid-court, and an outstanding goal-shooting performance from Silver Fern Angela Mitchell.

Sting defender Lesley Nicol admitted afterwards that her side had been slow to adjust to the intensity of the contest, and particularly the no-holds barred approach of their opponents.

"We didn't cope with the constant niggle," she said.

"It was a good contest but we didn't play our own game; we didn't get any flow through the court and as a result our shooting was affected."

In the other game of the round, the Irene van Dyk-inspired Magic also suffered something of an upset loss, going down to the Canterbury Flames 52-46 in Hamilton.