Grace Nweke, Georgina Heffernan, Amelia Walmsley and Martina Salmon. Photos / Photosport
Suzanne McFadden for LockerRoom
All eyes remain fixed on Dame Noeline Taurua’s fraught coaching future – more than a month after she was sidelined, with no solution in sight – as the Silver Ferns face their toughest challenge of the year without her.
More voices have come out this week in support of the world champion coach: Gail Parata resigning as Silver Ferns selector and calling for heads to roll over Taurua’s suspension; Te Korowai, Sport Performance Coaches NZ, urging sports organisations to “show greater care and consideration” with their high-performance coaches; and Ferns goal shoot Grace Nweke standing by her very public plea for Taurua to return to the head coach job.
But meanwhile in the background lurks an on-court dilemma for the Ferns you hope will be resolved much quicker: who will step up at goal attack?
It’s the Ferns’ Achilles heel as they head into Friday’s Constellation Cup opener in Melbourne.
Goal attack is a “critical piece” in a team’s strategy, says Silver Ferns interim coach Yvette McCausland-Durie. After stepping in at short notice, she says she’ll continue with Taurua’s vision for “variation” in the second shooter role – with no senior Ferns to fill it.
With veteran Ferns Ameliaranne Ekenasio and Maia Wilson both taking a break from the game, it’s left a critical void in the Ferns’ attack – which will be magnified against their fiercest rivals, Australia’s Diamonds, whose defence is stacked with smarts and exposure at the apex of the game.
As they defend their Constellation Cup title, New Zealand’s lack of experience in the goal attack bib is glaring. The Silver Ferns’ three options for this four-test series – Amelia Walmsley, Martina Salmon and Georgia Heffernan – share just 15 test caps between them. They’ll face Diamonds star defender Courtney Bruce, who made a commanding return from injury in last week’s whitewash of South Africa and has 85 appearances in the green and gold.
And with the Australians claiming to know more than ever about the strengths and weaknesses of the Ferns’ undisputed goal shoot Nweke after she starred in their Super Netball league this season, her circle partner will need to be dynamic, inventive and fearless to shoot from anywhere.
It’s been decades since goal attack posed such a conundrum for the Ferns. Ekenasio played 79 tests over the past 11 seasons, apprenticing under Maria Folau – who racked up 150 tests, often dominating from all arcs of the circle.
“We’ve had some great players in that position over the years, and sometimes a team played a particular way because of them,” McCausland-Durie says.
“So that’s part of our challenge. With different goal attacks, you’ve got to think about their connection, not only with the goal shoot but with the wing attack, how they co-ordinate and link. We’ve got to build all that – and build it quickly.”
Two of the contenders for the position – Amelia Walmsley and Martina Salmon – are both goal shoots who are learning on the job. They’re still adjusting to the nuances of goal attack: running the right lines, keeping clear of the midcourt and building chemistry with Nweke.
Georgia Heffernan is the only specialist goal attack of the trio.
“When you’ve got such a dynamic midcourt as we do in the Silver Ferns, you need to give them the space to do what they do best. For a goal attack, it’s knowing when to be in the circle, when to come out, when to be involved in the centre pass,” McCausland-Durie says.
“Nobody is the one answer. Depending on who you’re up against, you can make change. And the difference each one of them brings is huge.”
Walmsley returns after missing the Taini Jamison Trophy last month, having captained the New Zealand U21s to silver at the Youth World Cup in Gibraltar. She was the most dominant goal shooter in this year’s ANZ Premiership, with 96% accuracy, and the likely starter at GA in this series.
At 1.92m, she’s just a centimetre shorter than Nweke – which makes an intriguing prospect.
“We don’t often have a combination of twin towers at the shooting end, like you do in defence,” McCausland-Durie says. “Of course, Amelia and Martina can play at goal shoot, too, which adds other options on how we play the game.”
Nweke is just 23 and looks set to dominate the international scene for years, like Irene van Dyk and Folau before her. If Walmsley, with six tests to her name, wants to establish herself in the Silver Ferns, it may have to be at goal attack.
Taurua worked with Walmsley in the goal attack position for the past two seasons, impressed with the 21-year-old’s strong work ethic and openness to learning new skills. She and Nweke teamed up in the circle in the fourth spell of the final Constellation Cup match last year.
“Amelia played well in Gibraltar, and really thrived in the captaincy and the ability to lead,” McCausland-Durie says. “It’s a real sign when players at the highest level can also play in their own age group and flourish from those opportunities.”
Salmon, meanwhile, is also tall (1.9m) and owns a superb long-range shot – evident in her Fast5 debut last year, where she downed a six-point buzzer beater to send the Fast Ferns into the final.
In the third Taini Jamison test, she backed herself to score the match-winner in the final minute. She featured in all three matches, scoring 27 of her 33 attempts (82% accuracy).
She’s growing in confidence on court and has no fear of shooting from distance. But her communication with Nweke and overall court awareness still need attention.
“The third test was the first full game she’d ever played at goal attack,” McCausland-Durie says. “What she brings is the ability to shoot from real range, particularly long range. That long shot is useful when you’re trying to create a one-on-one down by the post with Grace.
“And she has the ability to be seen – when she’s moving around in that goal third, she’s really visible.
“With more fitness, her ability to transition between those spaces will come. We saw her grow from test one to test three. That courage to shoot long is just within her – she loves it.”
Georgia Heffernan (twin sister of Ferns midcourter Kate) played two of the South Africa games, scoring nine of her 13 attempts. She has speed, vision and a beautiful long shot, but seemed hesitant to put the ball up in the second test.
“What Georgia offers is the time she’s had at goal attack; she built her craft in that position as a young player,” McCausland-Durie says.
“She’s got speed, fitness and timing, and she knows the lines to run. She knows how to be involved in the centre pass, and an offload if needed, and she can shoot. She’s a smaller, mobile attacker, and sometimes they’re hard for defenders to find.”
Filda Vui, the potent Mystics goal attack who made her brief Ferns debut in the Taini Jamison series, has been left out of the touring team with Walmsley’s return.
McCausland-Durie is also aware she needs back-up for Nweke. Although the 41-test shooter went on a scoring spree against South Africa, averaging 56 goals a test, the Australians now know her style much better since she turned out for the NSW Swifts in Suncorp Super Netball.
As Bruce told Fox Sports: “I feel like it will be close – we’ve got a lot more experience playing against someone like Grace now, after her being in SSN. Hopefully that bodes well for us this series.”
The world champion Australians are out for redemption after losing last year’s Constellation Cup 3-1. They’re fresh from three decisive wins over the Proteas – whereas the Ferns came close to losing their third test with South Africa, under obvious physical and mental strain.
The Diamonds are overwhelmingly more experienced than the Ferns – with 529 caps to New Zealand’s 323.
Bruce, MVP in her return appearance, leads a formidable defensive circle with Sara Klau (61 tests) and Sunday Aryang (34 tests). But they also field two impressive up-and-coming defenders for this series – Matilda Garrett and Ash Ervin.
McCausland-Durie knows they could well put two defenders on Nweke under the post, forcing the goal attack to take more shooting responsibility.
“If they sit two on Grace and we continue to bullet it into her, there’ll be times when she’ll go up between them and take the ball, and other times when we’re just handing the ball over,” she says. “It’s that challenge of how you read the cues of the defence, where their weight is shifting to, to know when and where the replacement needs to be.”
If required, both Walmsley and Salmon can take on the goal shoot bib, too.
With the loss of key players – and the standing-down of their longtime coaching bench in the past month – the Silver Ferns will be the underdogs once again in this Constellation Cup, which travels to Sydney, Hamilton and Christchurch over the next fortnight.
But McCausland-Durie, drafted in again for this series and next month’s British tour while the Taurua saga remains unresolved, has faith in her squad.
“Playing Australia is the ultimate challenge,” she says. “We had a really good camp and got through a lot. There’s always that risk when you take a break that they’ll drift off, but they’ve been really good at just getting on with things. Despite everything, they’ve been able to make netball the focus.”
Flying out with the Ferns on Wednesday, Nweke said she didn’t regret her now famous plea after the final South African test last month – “Noels if you’re listening, we love you and we miss you and we want you back here” – and would do it again.
She also stressed the team were “united” and intent on shutting out the turbulence swirling around their sport.
“Reflecting on the [Constellation Cup] last year, it was hard enough to win as is, with a pretty standard training and playing environment, with no outside noise or drama,” she said.
“So it’s definitely going to be a new challenge for us with all that’s going on, to kind of compartmentalise even more so and kind of drop that and really focus on where we are in that moment and who we have got.
“There is a lot of buy-in, belief and determination to do the job. We know what it takes, we’ve been there before, so it’s an exciting opportunity for us to show some resilience, some mental fortitude and really band together for this series.”
The Silver Ferns meet the Australian Diamonds in Melbourne on Friday night for test one of the Constellation Cup at 9.30pm (NZT).
Live commentary: GOLD SPORT & iHeartRadio
Live updates: nzherald.co.nz
This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.