Netball: Mystics' top-four goal sliding away

Mystics coach Te Aroha Keenan hasn't written off her team's chances of making the top four. Photo / Getty Images

The Northern Mystics' goal of making the top four in the ANZ Championship this season is slowly slipping from their grasp.

They know it will take a mammoth effort against New Zealand's glamour team of the competition, the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic, in Rotorua tonight if they are to have any realistic shot of making the play-offs.

Having lost a great deal of experience from last season with the defection of Silver Ferns Leana de Bruin (Magic), Sheryl Scanlan (Steel) and Paula Griffin (Pulse), a semifinal finish was always an ambitious goal for the Auckland side.

In fact the Mystics are the only New Zealand team without a Silver Fern in their line-up, although it could be argued that the way captain Temepara George is playing she would almost certainly slot straight back into a starting role with the national side should she make herself available.

With the exception of their inspirational skipper and a couple of others, the Mystics are by and large a very inexperienced group.

But despite her side's youth, coach Te Aroha Keenan isn't willing to reassess her team's goals just yet.

"Winning games is still the priority at this stage, we haven't written off making the top four but we know it is slowly slipping away," said Keenan.

"We're still out hunting and looking for that next win. Come Monday we're going to go out there and look to bring our best game."

The Mystics' position in the League is almost identical to where they were at this time last year, with a two-win, four-loss record. But the mood in the camp is vastly different.

Gone are the rumours of player discontent and rifts between the coaching staff. The Mystics this year are a happy and united group, which leads Keenan to believe that if they can keep plugging away, the wins will soon come.

As for that happening tonight against an intimidating Magic line-up, which, as few need reminding, features seven Silver Ferns, Keenan remains cautiously optimistic her side can get over the line.

"For us the focus is on getting our game right and lasting the whole distance," she said.

"It's not about going back and watching a lot of DVD footage of them, because we know them. We know every possible player they could put out there. It's making sure the game we play against them is sound. We turned over far too much ball against them last time, so if we can cut down the errors we can come close to winning the game or even win."

But with an impressive defensive line-up including Silver Fern stars Casey Williams, Leana de Bruin and Joline Henry, the Magic are experts at pressuring their opposition into making mistakes. Add to that some of the best finishers in the game in Irene van Dyk and Maria Tutaia, and it is difficult to see the Mystics being able to pull off a win.

In tonight's other ANZ Championship clash, the NSW Swifts, who sit just above the Mystics in the competition standings by virtue of points differential, will be looking to arrest their run of poor results when they take on the Queensland Firebirds in Sydney.

The Melbourne Vixens continue to set the pace, posting an impressive 74-49 win over the West Coast Fever in Perth yesterday. Their 74 goals was the highest score ever amassed in the competition's short history.

The weekend's other clash was a much-tighter affair, the Southern Steel just sneaking past the Canterbury Tactix 48-47 in Christchurch on Saturday.