It has been 327 days since the Southern Steel’s last competition game in the deep south.
That ends tonight, the side set to face the Northern Mystics at Stadium Southland.
Having beaten the Mystics 55-47 in Palmerston North in its season-opener, the team is looking forward to getting in front of the Southland crowd.
Coach Reinga Bloxham said it had been exciting playing in Dunedin last week, but tonight would have an extra edge for the Invercargill-based players.
‘‘It’s like having extra players in behind you,’’ she said of the parochial Invercargill crowd.
‘‘We just love the fact that they applaud the good play from both sides as well. They appreciate good netball.’’
Just two weeks after the first game against the Mystics, the Steel’s game plan will be fresh in the minds of its opponents.
That was something Bloxham was taking a proactive approach to.
She said the side would make tweaks to throw something new at the Mystics in what she was expecting to be a tough battle.
‘‘I think the beauty of our competition is you get to meet these teams three times.
‘‘If you’ve done your homework, you make sure you’re watching to see what they’re doing and, for your own game, making sure you don’t become too predictable.
‘‘So while we have talked about making sure we nail off our structures, there are things we want to make sure we do against them that we weren’t so happy with last time.
‘‘We’ve looked at the game we played last time, we’ve looked at our game plan and we’ve tweaked a few things.
‘‘They’re not big things, but hopefully they’re enough to make that difference.’’
In that last game, the Steel shot out to an early lead before the Mystics came roaring back in the fourth quarter.
While the Steel had made several changes, the Mystics had brought Tera-Maria Amani on at goal shoot.
She made an immediate impact, scoring 19 goals at 90%.
With no Maria Folau available, Bloxham was expecting Amani to have plenty of playing time.
The side had looked at her game in an effort to counter her threat.
On the injury front, Wendy Frew would probably play another 45-minute game, as she continued her comeback from a ruptured Achilles.
Meanwhile Shannon Francois, who had been suffering from a foot injury and was rested for a quarter in last week’s game, hoped to play a full game.
- In the Beko League, South had a heartbreaking 50-49 loss to the Northern Marvels in Auckland on Saturday.
Christie Anderson scored twice in the dying seconds for the host to edge infront.
