Netball: Steel end build-up on down note

The Southern Steel ended their trans-Tasman netball league build-up with a 51-58 defeat to the Canterbury Tactix in Dunedin today.

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 team-mate and Silver Fern shooter Anna Thompson, whose canny knack for evading defenders proved crucial.

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 into a confidence-boosting victory.

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

"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 - there's a great level of excitement," she said.

"We will take a lot of positives from this win ... we're just steadily building."

The trans-Tasman league begins next Saturday with the Northern Mystics playing the Adelaide Thunderbirds in Auckland.