Netball: Dire performances ramp up pressure

Waimarama Taumaunu is under pressure to find a winning formula for the Silver Ferns. Photo / Greg Bowker

After an awful season, the pressure on the Silver Ferns cranked up several notches again following Tuesday night's loss to the touring England side.

Given the injury problems the side have endured this year and the difficulties in trying to bed down a new-look frontline, most Ferns fans were willing to tolerate a 4-0 loss to the impressive Australian line-up in the Constellation Cup.

They didn't like it, and the nature of some of the losses were particularly galling, but there was a general acknowledgement that the Ferns were in a rebuilding phase and they had to absorb a little bit of pain now if they were to be a chance for the world title come August next year.

But that goodwill has now run out following the 42-38 loss to England.

On a pre-season tour to Britain in January, the Silver Ferns were 17 goals better than England even without regular starters Casey Kopua, Irene van Dyk and Maria Tutaia. Nine months on, and missing those very same players (although due to different circumstances), the Ferns game disintegrated. It was just their fourth loss to England in 83 meetings - the latest loss coming at the worst possible time for the battling Kiwi team.

Serious questions are now being asked over the team management's succession planning, selections and tactics - questions that cannot be avoided even if the Ferns do manage to rescue the series in Palmerston North tonight.

This is a dangerous time for the national programme.

Things might be ugly now, but it will get immeasurably worse if the team implode.

With the external pressure being applied by the unprecedented level of scrutiny there is the potential for second-guessing, back biting and the destructive blame game to set into the camp.

The end-of-season reviews need to be thorough and exacting. But more than anything they need to be constructive.

Axing coach Waimarama Taumaunu is not the answer. With just nine months until next year's World Cup it would be counter-productive to bring in a new coach at this late stage, even if there were a ready replacement waiting in the wings (there isn't).

Taumaunu might have made mis-steps along the way, things that in hindsight she would have done differently - namely the team's lack of preparedness for the post-van Dyk era - but she can't be blamed for New Zealand's woeful lack of depth in the shooting end, which is proving to be side's key downfall this season.

That rests with Netball New Zealand's failure to recognise and address the country's poor player development systems and the lack of competition opportunities underneath the ANZ Championship.

The import rules in the ANZ Championship have also created a positional shortage in the shooting circle, with three of the five franchises fielding imports in their goal shoot spot, while the Central Pulse this year had two players (van Dyk and Donna Wilkins) who were unavailable for national selection.

With the shock retirement of van Dyk and Tutaia out with a foot injury, the shooting stocks were so bare for the end of year internationals Taumaunu was forced to select two players - Bailey Mes and Ameliaranne Wells - who cannot get court time in the ANZ Championship (Magic starter Ellen Halpenny was another option, but her Commonwealth Games form was not compelling).

While the return of Tutaia will help bolster the Ferns shooting options, New Zealand's shooting stocks aren't going to dramatically improve between now and the World Cup.

They have to work with what they've got and that unfortunately means throwing inexperienced players into the pressure-filled cauldron of international netball now, in the hope the experience will stand them in good stead in nine months' time.

Silver Ferns v England
Test 2: Tonight, 7.30pm
Arena Manawatu, Palmerston North
Test 1: England 42 New Zealand 38 (Rotorua)
If New Zealand win tonight's final test the series will be decided by goal percentage.