Crampton focused on the final

Gina Crampton
Gina Crampton
Gina Crampton nearly reached her latest milestone without even realising it.

The wing attack played her 50th game for the Southern Steel in Monday night's 64-51 win over the Central Pulse.

While it had been special to play that many games for one franchise, it was not a focus point for her.

Indeed it was something that very nearly passed her by.

''[It was] really cool,'' she said of the achievement.

''I had no idea about it until the day [of the game] when someone told me. So I guess it snuck up on me.''

Of the 50 games, it was the one in which she brought up the milestone that she singled out as being particularly memorable.

It was the game in which the side completed a perfect 15-win regular season, something made more special by the team being such a great group.

Having first joined the team as a replacement player in 2012, she has emerged as a key asset for the franchise over the past three years.

After nailing down a starting spot in 2015, she rose to greater heights last year and was named New Zealand's ANZ Premiership player of the season alongside making her Silver Ferns debut.

She has continued that form throughout 2017.

Starting every game, her speed, explosiveness and feeding ability has made her key to the Steel's unbeaten run.

At just 25 years old, 100 games is very much within her grasp, too.

She opted not to speculate, though, saying ''anything's possible'', when asked of the prospect.

Her attention, along with the rest of players', was for now firmly on Wednesday's final in Invercargill.

The team was looking forward to seeing who its opponent would be. It will meet the winner of Sunday's elimination final.

However, Crampton, who is based in Dunedin, was clear on what the next week held for the team.

''A lot of training this week, then we get together as a team in Invercargill in the weekend.''

She would not change much in her preparation and planned to continue doing what had been working.

Having suffered a ''pretty disappointing'' loss after a dominant regular season last year, she said the team would be doing all it could to not let that happen again.

Securing the home final so far in advance had helped with that, allowing the Steel to gear itself towards June 28.

Despite the dominance which led to that home final, Crampton said there was no arrogance in the team. She said it remained very aware of the task in front of it, although its dominance would give it a boost.

''[The team is] pretty nervous, but we're happy to be at home. The southern crowd is always great to have behind us.''

 

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