Netball: Squad focus on staying in control

With plenty riding on the outcome, quality of performance is the sole focus for Kia Magic in their ANZ Championship netball rematch with Northern Mystics at the ASB Arena tonight.

Magic occupy fourth place on the table but will have a much clearer picture of what they need to do to cement their spot among the finals series' contenders before they take the court for the last round of the regular season. There could also be the opportunity of pushing up to third in the seedings depending on earlier results and final goal tally.

Whatever lies in front of them, coach Noeline Taurua's priority is to end the 14-round competition on a high note as Magic look to redress a patchy 10-goal win against Mystics two weeks ago in Auckland.

"We play on the Monday and the positive thing is all the other teams play on the Sunday, meaning second, third, fifth and sixth will have already played, so we'll roughly know going into that last game what we need," Taurua said.

"We're just going to keep chugging along and while we will know exactly where we sit prior to our game, for us it's all about the discipline of being in control and not being swayed by outside influences."

Labelling Magic's earlier performance against bottom-of-the-table Mystics as lacklustre and below standard, Taurua said the short turnaround was a good thing as it was still fresh in the memory.

"The performance aspect is huge, it over-rides everything else," she said.

"It's performance and product that we've strived for since the beginning of the season and something we always want to improve on. That comes first and foremost in our thinking.

"Being at home for our last game, I just really want to finish this regular season off well for us."

On the other side of the coin, Mystics can be relied on to produce the unexpected despite their lowly position. They turned on their best performance of the season the first time they played Magic and followed up with a quality first half against the (minor premiers) Adelaide Thunderbirds before fading out in their latest outing.

"They have the potential to put a huge performance out there. They're unpredictable and they still have five internationals in their team, so there's a lot of individual firepower and you can't disrespect that," Taurua said.