Arid soil in Aussie

KATIE BAYLIS COLUMN

OPINION: AUSTRALIA'S dominance of the ANZ Championship has been the hot topic in netball since last weekend's disastrous ANZ Championship round where not one Kiwi team managed to beat their trans-Tasman rivals.

And revenge is a long way off for our netballers with no trans-Tasman clashes for the next six weeks.

But while the Mystics came closest with their four-goal loss to the Swifts in Sydney, shooter Catherine Latu says she is happy to take a break from playing the Aussies despite the fact her side is building momentum.

"It's a good thing for us because it means we can work on our skills so that we can get over there and beat them," Latu told Sunday News.

While Australia's dominance of the competition is starting to hurt New Zealand netball, it's the galling statistic that no New Zealand team has won on Australian soil since the competition started last year which is becoming the biggest worry.

"New Zealand teams are going to start going there and thinking they need to win just because nobody else has, instead of playing their own game," Latu said.

"Someone said to us before our game against the Swifts, you're New Zealand's last chance this weekend and we said no, we need to win because we need to, it's got nothing to do with having to win on Australian soil.

"But it is going to become a huge mental block. We're all trying so hard but it's just not coming off."

However, Latu says it didn't play a part in the Mystics loss to the defending champions in Sydney last week, a match which saw the Auckland-based side come within a whisker of an elusive victory in Australia and has given hope to fans that the team that failed to fire last year could be about to reach its potential.

"Even though we didn't win against the Swifts, it wasn't as painful as it had been in the previous weeks. We've been playing some pretty average netball so to get the links through court and to finish it off was good but we're still not there yet," she said.

Latu combined fantastically with English recruit, goal attack Pamela Cookey, with the pair running rings around the Swifts defenders at times.

"She's very, very fast and very, very athletic, so we've been trying to work on her strengths. She's fitting in perfectly and it really showed against the Swifts. Hopefully we can keep that going," the former Samoan international said.

However, Cookey has been sharing the goal attack duties with Grace Rasmussen and played only half the match against the Swifts. She admits she'd like a lot more game time.

"I came over here to play netball so playing full games is my aim and the more we play together the more we get to know how each other works so that would definitely be a bonus," Cookey said.

The Mystics take on the Pulse in Wellington tomorrow night and if on-song could post a big win. But Cookey says the Mystics will not fall into the trap of thinking they have won before they run out on court.

"We're not underestimating them. They will come out and give us a hard game but it is the game we feel we really must win.

"If not then our campaign will really be on the back burner."

Not only that, the Mystics will forever be known as the team that gave the Pulse their first-ever win.

- © Fairfax NZ News