KEY POINTS:
Less than 24 hours after being feted as a hero, Liana Barrett-Chase is digging deep to be recognised again.
The streamers and brass bands of yesterday's victory parade down the wide streets of Invercargill are a memory now, as Barrett-Chase flies to Auckland today to trial for the
Silver Ferns.
The 22-year-old Manawatu mum is on the brink of winning national honours, with Ferns coach Ruth Aitken looking to shore up her midcourt for next month's tests against Jamaica and Australia, and beyond to November's world championships.
Aitken has said she might reach outside the current team for a back-up wing attack, with Barrett-Chase and the Flames' Maree Bowden the prime candidates.
Barrett-Chase isn't anxious about this trial - nothing rivals the nerves she suffered before last week's National Bank Cup final, when her Sting side's triumph gave her a second straight title (she was part of the Magic team who won last year).
"Whatever happens, nothing is as scary as last week's game," 22-year-old Barrett-Chase laughs. "After winning that, being selected for the Silver Ferns would be icing on the cake."
It's already been a double-decker chocolate gateau kind of year for her.
Last season she was on the Magic sidelines, and decided she would push herself hard over the summer so as not to settle for being "the same person, with the same skills, sitting on that bench".
She turned to the Sting and Robyn Broughton, who demanded more of her to make their starting line-up: a change of position, intense off-season training and then long hours travelling. But she did it all and became one of the stand-out midcourters in the competition - footing it with her hero, Temepara George, in last week's final.
It earned her an invitation - with shooters Daneka Wipiiti and Jade Topia - to join the New Zealand squad for the three-day trials.
She's unsure of her chances of taking the next step up, knowing she will have to knock out a player the calibre of former New Zealand captain Julie Seymour to make the Ferns 12.
"Julie's had three children and she's probably the fittest player on court. It depends if they want to go with the oldies or jazz it up with something new," she says.
Barrett-Chase is a mother too - her daughter, Brooklyn, will be five in October.
She and her partner, Manawatu rugby centre Johnny Leota, bring up Brooklyn in Palmerston North. It's where Barrett-Chase, born in Taihape, went to school and played her early netball.
Third-born, among two brothers and six sisters, Barrett-Chase started playing the game at four years old, driven to compete with her elder sister, Awhina, who would also become a New Zealand under-21 player.
"I was always spurred on to be as good as her," Barrett-Chase says.
She played two seasons with the Flyers franchise, which became a kind of nursery for the National Bank Cup, grooming players to star in other corners of the country. She credits her coach there, Yvette McCausland-Durie, with fostering her game to the point where she made the New Zealand under-21 side that won the World Youth title in 2005.
"Yvette helped me through high school and then into the under-21s. It was a great grounding for me," Barrett-Chase says. "It's just sad the western area could never keep us all there."
Flying to Invercargill every week to train with the Sting, an almost four-hour trip one-way, was never an issue for Barrett-Chase: "I took up reading, so I would read on one flight and sleep on the other."
She was always driven by the fear of missing a flight - and the penalty of paying $800 for another ticket.
As netball enters a new era, Barrett-Chase wants to stick with Southland in next year's Tasman Trophy.
"I want to give back to Southland for what they've given me, especially Robyn. But it may mean having to train with them twice a week, and maybe moving to Invercargill. My partner plays for the Manawatu Turbos and he gets first priority," she says.
It's been said of other players before, but Broughton has brought out the best in Barrett-Chase. She introduced her to centre, a position Barrett-Chase had been loath to consider before.
"I prefer wing attack, and before this season that's all I would play; I wouldn't go out of my comfort zone. But when Robbie told me I couldn't play there, that it was Adine's position, it was a bit of a wake-up call," she says. "It made me strengthen my defence."
It may have been the best thing to happen to Barrett-Chase's game, in a year when she could still get her icing on the top.
* The Silver Ferns team to play Jamaica and Australia next month will be named on Monday. Sunday's trial at the ASB Stadium, Kohimarama, is open to the public from 11am.
New Zealand trials
Shooters: Paula Griffin, Jodi Te Huna, Jade Topia, Maria Tutaia, Irene van Dyk, Daneka Wipiiti.
Midcourt: Maree Bowden, Temepara George, Laura Langman, Julie Seymour, Debbie White, Adine Wilson, Liana Barrett-Chase.
Defence: Leana de Bruin, Joline Henry, Anna Scarlett, Sheryl Scanlan, Casey Williams.Into centre (and inner circle?)
