Tough start to life at the top for Taieri

Southern centre Grace Herdman looks for options as Taieri players Lucy Geddes (left) and Rachel...
Southern centre Grace Herdman looks for options as Taieri players Lucy Geddes (left) and Rachel Beattie loom large during their premier netball match at the Edgar Centre on Saturday. PHOTOS: GERARD O’BRIEN
Taieri Netball Club has reached the top grade of the Dunedin Netball competition less than five years after the club was re-formed.

The club was established in 1968 but closed in 2001 due to life commitments and injuries.

Re-establishing the club had been on the cards for years before a group of Mosgiel netball-lovers got the ball rolling in 2017.

The next season, the club had two teams entered in the Saturday competition.

They were considered new teams so started in lower grades.

Since then, the A team has progressed up the grades and started this season in premier A, after winning premier B last season.

The club has also grown to four teams.

Club president Hannah Mitchell said, from the start, the goal was to make premier C and reaching premier A was next.

"I think in four years it’s a great achievement," Mitchell said.

"It’s quite scary being in prem A but we take it as a challenge and we’re feeling positive about it."

The team has some new faces this year — only two players from last year’s team are involved — so players are still making connections and getting to know each other.

"It’s an exciting team," she said.

"I see a lot of potential in everyone."

They had their first taste of the top grade on Saturday against Southern Magpies, who won last year’s competition.

The game started slow before Southern scored a run of goals and took the lead.

It won 59-27.

Ms Mitchell, who plays in the team, said silly errors like stepping, going out of court and bad passes contributed to the loss.

"You just can’t do that in prem A, you’ve got to be smart," she said.

There were also probably some first-game nerves on show, too.

"It’s a good learning curve.

"The only way forward is up and to improve."

Now that the first game was over, the team was feeling good and looking forward to this week’s game against Phys Ed B, Mitchell said.

Overall, the goal for the season is to avoid this month’s promotion-relegation games and to end the season in the top six.

jessica.wilson@thestar.co.nz

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