Confidence boost in wake of Tactix win

The Tactix claimed a major confidence boost ahead of the trans-Tasman netball league starting with a 58-51 victory against the Southern Steel in Dunedin on Saturday.

Despite the loss last week of Australian import Peta Stephens for the season with a shoulder injury, the Tactix showed they have cast that disappointment aside with a bold display.

The Tactix snatched the lead early in the second spell and never relinquished it, winning the next three quarters. They have made good strides in recent weeks, turning a 20-goal drubbing last time the two teams met at the pre-season tournament in Queenstown into a heartening success.

Tactix coach Helen Mahon-Stroud said the result would boost her team heading into its first-round clash against the Central Pulse next Monday night in Christchurch.

"We're just really looking forward to the competition beginning and getting into it because that's what we're training so long and hard for," she said. "We will take a lot of positives from this win ... we're just steadily building."

It was a lacklustre performance from the southerners in their final game of an intense pre-season campaign which has taken place on both sides of the Tasman and featured 19 matches in the past five weeks.

But captain Megan Dehn wasn't looking for excuses, conceding her team simply wasn't up to the task.

"Everyone should have stepped up and adjusted ... we didn't have a good game at all, right across the court," she said. "We had our chances and just didn't convert them."

Coach Robyn Broughton agreed: "We didn't play well ... every time we got a turnover we threw it away and we can't do that."

Both teams opted for their Australian shooters in the wing attack bib – Dehn for Steel and Chelsea Pitman for Tactix. Despite a promising performance, Pitman was outshone in the feeding stakes by Anna Thompson, whose canny knack for evading defenders proved crucial.

- NZPA