Netball: Magic already weaving next year's win

You cannot accuse national champions the Magic of having spent their weekend sitting back for a good old bask in the glow of victory.

Yesterday, just 36 hours after the National Bank Cup final and around 10 months before the next edition begins, chief executive Sheryl Dawson and coach Noeline Taurua sat down and began planning for 2007, when the Waikato-Bay of Plenty franchise will chase a third straight title.

And it's likely they'll have the vast bulk of this year's squad back in the red, black and gold colours.

Friday night's crushing 67-43 win over six-times champions the Sting at Mystery Creek might be the last game for co-captain Amigene Metcalfe and wing attack Kiri Adams. The rest, including Silver Ferns Irene van Dyk, Laura Langman, Casey Williams and Joline Henry, are expected to return. Coach Noeline Taurua is a confirmed starter for next year.

"Most players are on a one- or two-year agreement because you don't know where their lives might take them," Dawson said yesterday.

"People's situations do change. But we work really hard to look after our players and create an environment that they want to be part of, so their eyes aren't turned elsewhere."

As for emulating the Sting's remarkable record of contesting all nine finals since it began in 1998, opinions vary.

Taurua cautiously believes "the potential is there" for the Magic to do it; Dawson wonders if any team will be able to repeat the Sting's achievement of winning six titles on the bounce, from 1999.

"This year's competition demonstrated that perhaps it's going to be much harder to create the sort of legacy the Sting have," Dawson said.

The Magic always felt they could run away with the title at Mystery Creek in the same manner they did in Invercargill last year.

Then, it was a 26-goal winning margin; on Friday, with van Dyk bagging 52 of 55 shots and Tanya Lund 15 of 16, it exploded from a five-goal advantage at halftime, to 24 by the end.

"We knew the first part of the game would be tight while both teams sussed each other out," centre Metcalfe said.

"But there was a point in the third quarter where if we put our foot down then it could happen. It wasn't till halfway through that quarter when we said to each other 'this is it'."

The final 15 minutes became a Mercedes against a Mini, 19-7 to the Magic as the tiring legs of the older Sting players simply couldn't keep up.

"This was more satisfying than last year," Metcalfe said.

"We went through a bad patch and had a little bit of self doubt in the middle of the season, so we had to pull ourselves up."

Three of the magic Magic - van Dyk, wing defence Langman and goal keep Williams - are shoe-ins to be named this morning in the Silver Ferns squad for two tests against Australia on July 22 and 25 and one against South Africa at Trusts Stadium in Auckland on July 31.

Others with a chance include goal defence Henry and goal attack Lund.