Netball: Magic win makes up for verbal batterings

After a week of bad press and off-court distractions, Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic coach Noeline Taurua is relieved her side have been able to emerge from it all with two ANZ Championship points.

While admitting that Saturday's 50-48 win over the Canterbury Tactix was by no means a spectacular performance, Taurua said that after the battering her side have taken on and off the court in the week leading up to the clash, she was pleased with the result.

"Over the last two weeks we've had a lot of ups and downs both on and off the court. The game was a hard game. Everyone goes on about our lineup, but the Tactix have a strong group of high-calibre players as well," said Taurua.

"It was always going to be a game that was dogged and go down to the wire. And those two points are so precious, so irrelevant of the performance, we're happy to come away with them."

After being accused by Queensland Firebirds coach Vicki Wilson of rorting the salary cap and then unwittingly finding themselves at the centre of the ongoing debate over the uneven makeup of New Zealand line-ups, the Magic were last week labelled bad sports for failing to join the post-match huddle after their shock loss to the Firebirds in Brisbane.

Former Australian captain turned commentator Liz Ellis labelled the Magic's behaviour a "disgrace".

"The way [the Magic] carried on after the game is an indication that they were really disappointed. I think they were bad sports."

For the laid-back Taurua, who is usually quick to brush off any disparaging remarks made about her team, it seems enough is enough.

She said she was disappointed the Magic had become a target of increasing criticism over the past few weeks, and questioned the motives of those dishing out the abuse.

"We're getting it left, right and centre, and all of it is really unwarranted," said Taurua. "We owned up to it after that loss and said 'the Firebirds were brilliant, they completely threw us off our game and all credit tothem'."

Taurua puts the round four, post-match incident down to a miscommunication - a point of view shared by Firebirds midcourter and English international Tamsin Greenway, who wrote in an online blog that she was shocked by some of the post-match comments.

"I don't think there were any hard feelings from [the Magic] and I think it's been harsh the way they've been spoken about," said Greenway.

"I've played against these players many times, and win or lose they're always extremely gracious."

Taurua believes that the incident should never have become the issue it did.

"It was interesting to see Tamsin Greenway come out and say there was nothing in it, but it's still been blown up," she said.

"For Liz Ellis to have come out and said what she has said, it's a bit weird, to be honest. I'm not sure what it's all about."

Taurua was also left bemused by some of the comments Ellis made during her commentary on the Firebirds win, in which she appeared to dedicate a lot of time to trying to discredit Magic sharpshooter and former on-court rival Irene van Dyk.

"I think as a commentator you've got to call the sport as it is and don't get into the emotionals of it or try to bring your own agendas in to it," said Taurua.

After the drama of the past couple of weeks, the Magic are now hoping for a comparatively quieter build-up for next week's match against the Central Pulse.

The Pulse will first be in action tonight, though, when they take on the Northern Mystics in Wellington.

In tonight's other round five match-up, the West Coast Fever take on the under-performing New South Wales Swifts in Perth.