Netball: Swifts wary of taking patchy Mystics lightly

Swifts' captain Catherine Cox respects the Mystics. Photo / Sarah Ivey

NSW Swifts skipper Catherine Cox would be happy if she were proven wrong today.

At the beginning of the season, the Australian international rated the Northern Mystics as top-four certainties.

But after an incredibly mixed season to date, probably the only way for the Mystics to make the play-offs now is if they win their next four matches, beginning with the Swifts at Waitakere's Trusts Stadium today.

So Cox is hoping it will be her own reputation as a tipster that takes a hit rather than her team's.

The experienced shooter admits she has been surprised by the Mystics' patchy form this year, particularly their last outing - a near miss against the Central Pulse - but said the Swifts had prepared as if they would be facing the Auckland side at their very best.

"At the start of the year I would have backed the Mystics to be in the grand final," said Cox.

"They've got so many great players in that side, and they're capable of beating all the big teams. So that's the side we're going into this game expecting to play against, and we'd be stupid not to."

Cox could be targeted by the Mystics in today's game.

The wily veteran is the key play-maker in the Swifts forward line, but has at times struggled with her accuracy on goal, shooting at just 73 per cent for the season. Two games this year she has shot below 60 per cent, including most recently against the Queensland Firebirds two weeks ago when she netted just 19 of her 33 shots, later claiming she "couldn't have hit the water if I fell out of the boat".

Mystics defender Althea Byfield, who managed to get the better of Cox in the pair's last meeting - when the Jamaican's former team the Pulse pulled off a shock victory over the Swifts late last year - reckons she knows how to rattle the Swifts captain, but she isn't letting on just how she plans to go about it.

Byfield said while the unbeaten Swifts were in a very different position to where they were this time last year, her side couldn't wait to face them.

"It's always good to play the best when they're at their best. Them being undefeated and all - that's just pure motivation for me," she said.

The battle down the other end of the court is expected to be just as fierce, with in-form shooter Cathrine Latu set for a big test against star English defender Sonia Mkoloma.

Mkoloma has been credited as one of the key reasons behind the Swifts' remarkable turnaround this year (from ninth last season to title favourites in 2010), with the rangy defender adding extra bite to the backline.

Mkoloma has the benefit of some inside knowledge on Latu's game, given the pair trained alongside one another for the composite world seven team in last year's tests against the Silver Ferns and Australian Diamonds. And who was in charge of that side that beat the Ferns in their three-test series? Swifts coach Julie Fitzgerald.

But Latu said she wasn't too concerned at the prospect of their using that information against her.

"I got to know a lot about everybody in that team, everybody's weaknesses, so I'm pretty sure Sonia knows a couple of mine, so it's going to be interesting. But times have changed and we've both adapted our games since then," she said.

ANZ CHAMPIONSHIP
Round 11
* Today: 2.20pm Northern Mystics v NSW Swifts, Auckland.
* Tomorrow: 4.50pm Adelaide Thunderbirds v Canterbury Tactix, Adelaide; 6.50pm Southern Steel v Melbourne Vixens, Dunedin.
* Monday: 7.20pm Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic v Queensland Firebirds, Rotorua; 9.05pm West Coast Fever v Central Pulse, Perth.