Homecoming of a different sort for Kia Magic coach
Press Release May 22, 2014
Nostalgia will play no part when Kia Magic coach Julie Fitzgerald heads across the Tasman for Sunday’s crunch ANZ Championship netball clash against NSW Swifts in Sydney.
In a homecoming of sorts, Sydney-sider Fitzgerald finds herself in the unfamiliar position of leading a New Zealand team against the side she spent four years with, and guided to the inaugural trans-Tasman title in 2008.
Any sentiment has been cast aside, with Fitzgerald, who broke new ground in becoming the first Australian to coach a New Zealand team in the league, wanting nothing more than to get one over her old team. And, in the porocess, urging further improvement from her Magic team who will face a searching examination from the well-performed Swifts.
On equal points, Magic just edge the Swifts in second place on the table with two rounds of the regular season remaining.
``It’s a major step up for us, Swifts and (Melbourne) Vixens are the in-form teams in the competition and we’ll really have to raise the level and be a little bit more precise in everything we do against them,’’ Fitzgerald said.
Magic will not only have to deal with a well-credentialled Swifts but also one of the best home crowds in the competition, last week’s match against the Adelaide Thunderbirds drawing a record ANZ Championshp regular season crowd of over 10,000.
``To be honest, playing against the Swifts doesn’t concern me at all,’’ Fitzgerald said. ``I’m really looking forward to the fact that I’ll have family in the crowd. It is one of the best venues in the world to play netball in. They have a phenomenal crowd and I love that Sydney crowd, so I’m quite looking forward to that.’’
Following successive losses to Southern Steel and Central Pulse, Magic got their campaign back on track with a resounding 18-goal win over the Tactix in their most recent outing.
``There’s still little bits where I think we can do better but I was much happier with that one, particularly because we kept going on with it and winning each quarter which is what we were looking for,’’ Fitzgerald said.
Currently on a four-game winning streak, Fitzgerald has detected few weaknesses in the Swifts line-up, the Sydney crowd an added plus for the home team.
``We will have to be very exact in our attacking play, there will be no room for errors there, and I still think we need to make major improvement in our through court defence and having seven defenders on the court at all times,’’ she said.
``Confidence plays an enormous part and that’s why I was very happy to come away with a big win on Monday night (Tactix) to regain some of the confidence we’d lost the two weeks before.
``We’ve always said that we’re capable of it but we’ve been disappointed in ourselves when we don’t produce it.’’
The switching of shooters Jo Harten and Ellen Halpenny for the second half against the Tactix could be an ace up Fitzgerald’s sleeve, the Magic duo not missing a beat as the pair revelled in their new roles with accomplished outings.
Current players Kim Green, Susan Pratley and England import Sonia Mkoloma remain from Fitzgerald’s days at the Swifts, in what she now describes as a vastly different team.
Jane Hunt
Kia Magic media liaison
Ph: 021-107-0287
