Netball: Thwaites to rekindle old rivalries

Caitlin Thwaites of the Pulse. Photo / Getty Images

If things get a bit dull in Porirua tonight, Caitlin Thwaites and Casey Williams could have a quick catch up on old volleyball memories.

The Central Pulse defender played in Australia's Olympic qualifying campaign in 2003 before returning to Bendigo to finish her high school studies.

She remembers playing against both the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic defender and her Silver Ferns team-mate Anna Scarlett on the volleyball court before netball took hold. Tonight she will square off against the formidable Williams again when the Magic visit.

Victorian Thwaites, a member of the Australian netball squad for the four years until last year, has come to the under-achieving Pulse intent on providing some attacking thrust.

Perennial cellar dwellers, the Pulse avoided the wooden spoon in last year's ANZ Championship, had a strong pre-season campaign with three wins over rival franchises but are still chasing their first championship win this season.

They lost by 10 goals to the Northern Mystics in their opener, and went down 45-43 to the Steel in Porirua on Saturday. But Thwaites, 24, likes what she is seeing of the Pulse, who have a decent spine to their side now, with Silver Fern defender Katrina Grant and national squad member Camilla Lees in mid court.

A tougher attitude on themselves is having a positive spinoff.

"There is an increased intensity of trainings," Thwaites said last night. "We've become lot more accountable in training and being really honest with each other, not accepting second best and those lapses in training. We're trying to push each other a lot harder to get gains out of all the training."

The loss to the Mystics left a feeling of things not quite being in sync. Thwaites believes the Steel should have been beaten.

"We were on the same page in terms of the structures we were running, and our defence did a really great job at holding up the ball. It was probably our own errors that cost us the game."

Wins are few and far between for the Pulse, just two in the first 39 games of the championship over its three completed seasons. So they are overdue to ruffle some feathers.

The Magic, beaten finalists last year, will give them a solid benchmark on progress. The Waikato franchise eased past the Mystics 45-39 last Thursday night, but Thwaites is very much from the glass half-full school.

"We're definitely going in thinking we've got a chance. It's the start of the season, I don't think they've hit their straps either and we'll match up quite well against them," she said.

In today's other match, the West Coast Fever host the Queensland Firebirds in Perth.

The Fever were walloped by 19 goals by defending champions the Adelaide Thunderbirds last Thursday night. The Thunderbirds were then scorched by 23 goals by the Firebirds two nights later, so no prizes for guessing who is favourite Thwaites' old team the Vixens inflicted the second straight defeat on the New South Wales Swifts 49-45 in Sydney last night.