It was no fluke. The Magic proved they still are a real force in the transtasman league with a clinical 50-36 win over the Mystics at Trusts Stadium tonight to maintain their dominant record over their northern rivals.
The signs were there last week the Waikato-Bay of Plenty side, who had to rebuild their side virtually from scratch after losing nine players, including Silver Ferns stars Irene van Dyk and Laura Langman, in the off-season, are still one of New Zealand's premier sides when they demolished the Tactix in their opening round clash.
But given the calibre of their opposition doubts remained over how the Magic would stack up against more experienced sides. The answer was - quite well, actually.
A typically superb defensive performance from Silver Ferns stars Casey Kopua and Leana de Bruin springboarded the Magic to their 12th win over the Mystics in 15 meetings.
Just as tonight's match confirmed pre-season predictions of the Magic's demise were a little hasty, it also proved the Mystics' round one horror show against the Vixens show can't simply be chalked up to a bad day at the office. There are some major kinks in the Mystics game plan that need ironing out, and with the Central Pulse - another stacked line-up - up next weekend, they have little time to sort it out.
A team known for their creativity and flair on attack, the Mystics tend to rely on their defence end to off-set their own error-rate by supplying them with plenty of turnover ball. But without their key ball-getters in Anna Harrison, who continues to battle a foot injury, and an all-new defensive end struggling to gel, the Auckland side couldn't make the defensive impact they needed.
But it is their typically classy shooting end that is causing the biggest headache for coach Debbie Fuller after the opening two rounds.
After producing their worst shooting performance in their history last week, netting just 59.6 per cent of their shots at goal, the Mystics were only marginally better tonight recording a 65 per cent return. Cathrine Latu, while producing the best accuracy rate, was especially quiet, contributing just eight goals to the Mystics paltry total of 36 goals.
Much of the credit for that has to go to the efforts of Kopua and de Bruin, who were at their menacing best tonight.
Things started ominously for the Mystics with Tutaia missing her first attempt, before having two shots disallowed by held ball calls, with the Silver Fern star looking uncomfortable shooting over the long arms of Kopua.
Fed a wealth of turnover ball from their defence end, the Magic jumped out to a handy 13-7 lead at the first break. That lead was soon stretched to 20-11 mid-way through the second period after a couple of basic errors on attack from the Mystics, prompting the introduction of young midcourter Nadia Loveday at wing attack.
Further changes were to come in the second half with Bailey Mes introduced at goal shoot to try and give the Magic defence something to think about, but it did not take Kopua and de Bruin long to get underneath the skin on Mes either as the visitors closed out an impressive win.
One of the stand-out players of the opening round, Magic midcourter Grace Rasmussen had another impressive game against her old team.
- Dana Johannsen of the New Zealand Herald
