Netball: Winning the only option for Steel

The Steel will be without pregnant shooter Daneka Wipiiti for the remainder of the season. Photo / Getty Images

Losing is not an option as the Southern Steel go into this weekend's crucial transtasman netball league clash with the Queensland Firebirds in Brisbane, coach Robyn Broughton said today.

Lying fourth on the table, and with just three matches to go, the Steel must beat the fifth-placed Firebirds to secure a spot in the playoffs.

The problem is, Broughton said, her team haven't brought the same game to the court twice this season.

A case in point was last Monday's match against the Northern Mystics in Invercargill. Up by as many as 12 goals in the second quarter, the Steel slithered to an unconvincing 52-50 win in a match which somewhat bemused their coach.

"We played really well in the first and second quarters, and then sort of went backwards," Broughton said.

"There seemed to be about four things in a row, and that was eight points gone. It was just silly stuff, we brought it upon ourselves."

If the Steel want to down the Firebirds - as they did in last year's match 54-52 in Dunedin - Broughton said they would have to maintain concentration and consistency.

"We'll definitely have to address it. We went into ourselves, we weren't available and then we lost two silly balls that probably some people would call intercepts, but I'd call them throwaways by us."

That hesitation around the circle edge, with midcourters Liana Barrett-Chase and Adine Wilson looking uncharacteristically uncertain, almost cost the Steel the game.

"It was just silly. The whole team lost a bit of zip, they got tentative, whereas in the first and second quarters they were just letting the ball go.

"We have to keep it together the whole time - you just can't drift in and out. Certainly against the Firebirds we can't afford to do that."

Broughton was wary of coming up against the wounded Queenslanders, who suffered a shock loss to the Canterbury Tactix last Saturday, totally outplayed 53-46.

Firebirds coach Vicki Wilson inexplicably mixed and matched her team in that game, making as many as four changes in some quarters. Only towering goal shoot Romelda Aiken, who shot 95 per cent for the game, centre Lauren Nourse and wing attack Tamsin Greenway played for the entire match.

"I don't know what she's intending to do this week," Broughton said. "All I know is, they're going to be heaving that big ball down into Romelda."

In a bid to combat the reach and elevation of the 1.96m Jamaican, the Steel would need to put pressure on the ball all the way through the court. The return of Silver Ferns defender Sheryl Scanlan, out last week with a calf injury, could prove invaluable in that respect.

At the other end of the court, Broughton said the Steel would be without Silver Ferns shooter Daneka Wipiiti, who would sit out the remainder of the season after recently announcing her pregnancy.

But Broughton said the southerners would lose nothing with her replacement, Australian Megan Dehn, who played for the franchise last year.

"We know Megan well, and I have great confidence in her ability. She's a really experienced, thinking sort of player. Her ball placement is really good and she never looks hassled or hurried.

"She just gets on with the game."

In the weekend's other matches, the Mystics could struggle against the Melbourne Vixens in Auckland, while the Central Pulse have an unenviable task fronting up to the Adelaide Thunderbirds in Australia.

Competition leaders Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic meet the Tactix in Rotorua, and defending champions NSW Swifts play the West Coast Fever in Sydney.

Broughton's focus, however, remains solely on what her team need to do to record the first win on Australian soil by a New Zealand team.

"We are the second best New Zealand team - we've proved that. Now so we need to go across there thinking `let's get two New Zealand teams in this top four.

"We're going to have to get on top of this one, we need it big-time."

- NZPA