Netball: Leota still has one last box to tick

Liana Leota is aiming for the world champs next month. Photo / Getty Images

Silver Ferns midcourter Liana Leota is considering taking an indefinite break from netball after next month's world championships.

Leota, who has spent the first four years of the ANZ Championship with the Southern Steel, has been linked to the Pulse next season, following her long-time coach and mentor Robyn Broughton north.

But the 26-year-old has revealed she is still weighing up whether she will play at all in 2012.

Leota's long-held netballing ambition is to secure a rare treble - gold at the World Youth Cup, Commonwealth Games and World Championships.

She has ticked off the first two, having been a member of the New Zealand under-21 side that won the world youth crown in 2005 and last year's triumphant Commonwealth Games team.

Now Leota is determined to fill the remaining gap on her resume in Singapore next month.

She said if the Ferns were to win the world title she would be content to take a break from the game and possibly have another child.

"At the moment I'm sort of up and down with what I'm going to do next year. But definitely if we win the gold at worlds I'd be happy to have a break for a year and maybe extend the family," she said.

"But I suppose I can't make a call until that moment - I just want to wait and see how I feel at the end of worlds."

Leota joined her Silver Ferns teammates in camp in Lower Hutt yesterday as they begin their preparation for the Singapore tournament.

The Ferns will have two hit-outs next week against Australia, the first of which will be in Leota's home town of Palmerston North on Thursday.

While some members of the Silver Ferns who were involved in the transtasman league playoffs have had little time off before beginning their national commitments, Leota's sole focus has been on the world championships for the past four weeks.

After a disappointing season with the Steel, who finished seventh in the 10-team competition, Leota packed up her life in Invercargill and returned home.

She said the change of scenery has helped her re-energise for the international season ahead.

"I think coming home and starting a new training programme and training for something completely different was like having a fresh start."

For the past three weeks, Leota has been training six days a week in the gym and attended regional skills sessions in Wellington on Tuesdays as well as travelling to Auckland on Fridays to join the rest of the North Island-based national players.

She said the skills sessions have been crucial to helping her regain her confidence in her game after a quiet 2011 season.

The zippy wing attack admits she has struggled so far this year to find the sparkling form of 2010 that saw her named the MVP of the transtasman league, but believes her quiet start to the season can be turned in to a positive.

Leota said it has forced her to work harder than she otherwise may have in the lead-up to the world championships.

"I think it was good for me, I think it was a wake-up call to say 'hey you can't just rest on what you did last year', you need to turn around and work even harder - so it was a good thing for me to learn going in to worlds."

dana.johannsen@nzherald.co.nz