Netball: Magic will use extra week to test mettle on river journey

Noeline Taurua. Photo / Sarah Ivey

While the Swifts and Thunderbirds hit the court in this Sunday's season opener, the Magic will be another world away doing a spot of soul searching on the Whanganui River.

The Magic have the advantage of an extra week to prepare for the season's start, with their opening game against the Steel not scheduled until round two.

Magic coach Noeline Taurua has decided to use that time by getting away from the hype and distraction and setting off on a three-day canoe journey down the river this weekend.

The team will head to Whakahoro, south of Taumarunui, today, where they will begin their the 86km journey in two-seater Canadian canoes, finishing up in Pipiriki, about an hour's drive from Wanganui, on Monday.

The idea of the trip is to unify the team and focus them on the goals for the 2011 season, in which they will look to finally shake off that bridesmaid tag.

Taurua said the weekend's physical and mental demands will set them up well to cope with the season's pressures.

"Activities like this one give us the physical conditioning we need but more importantly, they help us to learn about players when they are taken out of their comfort zones. The time we spend together will help us to understand each other, appreciate the needs of the group, and witness the reactions of the various personalities in the group as they encounter different situations.

"We'll be isolated - literally in the middle of nowhere," she said. "We'll be far away from all distractions and we'll have to cope."

Despite the limited time she has had with her full squad, Taurua resisted the temptation to spend the extra week thrashing the players on the training court to finetune combinations. She believes it is more important to ensure her side are all on the same page in terms of their visions and values.

"I'm confident that this time together will set us up for the season as a tight unit," she said. But there is a danger the Magic's limited time on court could come back to bite them.

The trade-off for getting a later start date is their first three games will be played in eight days, leaving little turnaround time in between games to iron out any kinks that may emerge in their previous outing.

In the Magic's only public pre-season outing last weekend, they easily dispatched the star-studded Northern Mystics side with Taurua making liberal changes throughout the match as she tested a range of combinations.

But the Magic mentor said there was still much they could tidy up on before the start of the season.

"They have some good spells and some not so good spells, so again it's that ability to be consistent.

"We've got a lot of work to do in terms of our possession of the ball. There were some balls that were thrown away that really shouldn't have been, and we need to look at why that was."

The Magic open their 2011 campaign against the Steel on February 20.