Netball: Lund takes sting out of south

Exiled Australian Tanya Lund would complete one of the great rags to riches tales should she be named in the Silver Ferns squad tomorrow.

The 23-year-old goal attack starred for back-to-back National Bank Cup champions Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic at Mystery Creek last night.

The Sydney-born shooter shot 94 per cent in the final which saw the Magic comfortably account for the Southern Sting 67-43. She will be one of a number of fringe candidates anxiously awaiting the announcement of Ruth Aitken's team.

To be even talked about as a national candidate is quite a stretch, considering last season she couldn't even break into the the Hunter Jaegers side where she had warmed the bench for the previous two years.

"She's come out of the wilderness," Magic coach Noeline Taurua said. "She's playing in the top team next to the best shooter in the world and doesn't look out of place at all.

"Her development has been huge, not so much physically but mentally."

With a New Zealand passport - both Lund's parents are New Zealand born and raised - and a willingness to shoot from anywhere in the circle, Lund has emerged as a realistic option for a spot in the Silver Ferns squad.

That possibility is enhanced by New Zealand's lack of depth in the shooting circle at present and the need to develop options ahead of next year's world championships in Fiji.

"I'm sure they would want to see more of Tanya to see her consistency, to see whether she can last a whole campaign," Taurua said.

"You've got to grow depth somehow and I'm really looking forward to seeing who they [the Ferns] will be."

Lund struggled in the Magic's consecutive losses to the Diamonds and Force last month but came good at the right time for Taurua.

"We needed to ensure we had seven players on the court and two shooters that were available otherwise we were putting too much pressure on each other," Taurua said. "When Tanya started making her long shots she pulled the defence on her and that opened up the back for Irene. They balance each other up quite nicely."

As well as the improvement in the combination in the shooting circle Taurua is putting a lot of the credit for the Magic's repeat down to the charms of Invercargill - not that it will give the southern citizens much cause for consolation.

Coming off the back of two consecutive losses, the Magic faced a semifinal away to the Sting to see who would advance straight to Friday night's final.

The Magic, she now admitted, had become predictable and lacking in unity. "For us to go down to Invercargill, it meant we were going to the other end of the Earth. There was no family, no friends, so we had to rely on ourselves.

"We went down a day earlier and had a mini-camp."

Whatever it was they found in the water at the end of Earth, it worked.