KEY POINTS:
Beware NSW Swifts: Magic sharpshooter Irene van Dyk has a few more tricks up her sleeve.
Almost three months on from their last meeting, the Magic meet the Sydney outfit in Hamilton on Sunday for the right to host the ANZ Championship final.
In their previous encounter in
round three, the Swifts ran out three-goal winners in a match where the Magic looked bereft of ideas in the attack end and struggled to find any flow.
But fresh off a 25-goal win over the Canterbury Tactix, van Dyk believes her side are finally beginning to gel and get some fluidity back to their attacking play.
And it's all because of a wee gamble coach Noeline Taurua took to start the goal-shoot at goal-attack.
It was a tactic the Magic coach had previously only employed in desperate circumstances to confuse the opposition.
But after playing three quarters at goal-attack last week, van Dyk has emerged as a genuine option there, proving solid in her positional play and maintaining usually high scoring volume despite the extra workload outside the circle.
Van Dyk said she was thrilled to get a decent run at goal-attack.
"I felt absolutely wonderful when she put me out there," she said of Taurua's decision.
"I just go where she tells me but for her to have the faith in me to put me in goal-attack is quite a big thing, because she was the master of that position once as well."
Regardless of whether van Dyk gets a run at goal-attack during the play-off series or not, she believes her time out of the circle has helped her add a number of skills to her repertoire, which she can put in to practice in the goal-shoot bib.
"Looking at the court from a goal-attack's point of view is totally different from a goal-shooter's point of view and it's about making yourself available as well," the 36-year-old said.
It is not just van Dyk's confidence that has grown after their round 14 demolition of the Tactix.
The star shooter says the entire Magic line-up have a spring in their step heading into the semis after finishing the round robin with such an emphatic win.
"It is nice to finish the round robin play with more flow to our game," she said.
"We hadn't played a decent even 30 minutes of netball for about a month, so last week was probably our best performance because we were consistent across 60 minutes. There are still things we can develop and improve on but it is good to have the confidence going into the semifinals."
But while the Magic were impressive in their last hit-out, it is the Swifts that head into the play-offs as the in-form team. The NSW side have won their last seven matches and in recent weeks have racked up big wins over fellow top-four sides the Adelaide Thunderbirds and the Melbourne Vixens.
It is a remarkable result for a side that were virtually written off in the pre-season after losing defensive powerhouses Liz Ellis and Mo'onia Gerrard.
While the Swifts have an exceptionally classy attack end, with captain Catherine Cox rated as the best shooter in the competition, van Dyk believes it is the emergence of Rebecca Bulley and Kimberley Purcell as top-quality defenders that has resulted in the Sydney side's rapid improvement.
"They're incredible, everybody underrated them and they have shown time and time again that they can upset any team. They are not names like Casey Williams or Bianca Chatfield, but they do the damage and I don't think that anyone gives them enough credit," the veteran shooter said.
"They come up with a lot of ball and the Swifts are a clever team and when they get a turnover they make sure they score off it down the other end."
The Swifts defence end did a superb job of throwing the Magic attack off their natural game in their round robin match-up but van Dyk said her side would be working overtime to ensure it would not happen again. But she is keeping mum on just how they plan to outsmart the Swifts.
It seems, for now at least, those tricks will remain up her sleeves.
