Timely break for Kia Magic
Press Release April 11, 2013
Coach Noeline Taurua has welcomed the timing of Kia Magic’s bye this weekend after a reality check and an eventful few days since their latest ANZ Championship netball outing.
West Coast Fever produced the upset of the season to snap Kia Magic’s 14-game winning streak in Perth last weekend and with only three rounds played, the bye, under normal circumstances, would seem to have come too early.
``In hindsight and where we are at the moment, coming out of our Fever match it’s a really good time for us to pull off, refresh and regroup,’’ Taurua said. ``So, in the bigger picture the timing’s perfect and is just a good opportunity to take a breath and time out to smell the roses.’’
The defending champions were seriously off their game against a spirited and lively Fever, a last quarter fightback being the only redeeming feature in a lopsided contest. But the coach is adamant the poor result was not derived from any sense of invincibility or arrogance.
``We are certainly not ego driven,’’ she said. ``We are very disappointed in ourselves with what panned out. Everything, for some reason, was out of kilter, from our training prior to travelling right through to the game. But I think in the long term, it will be good for us…..good lessons have come out it.
``We know if we follow our routines and our processes how well it works but we were just thrown completely out of our normal routines last weekend and that’s our fault.
``We should still have had enough in store to get through that game and it just higlighted areas of weakness and the work we need to do to make sure we keep our base strong. And I’m actually quite pleased that has all come out at this stage of the comeptition.’’
Having a light training load this week, Taurua will increase the intensity next week where she believes minor tweaking rater than major overhaul is all that’s required ahead of Kia Magic’s clash with Canterbury Tactix on April 22.
While midcourter Jess Tuki remains sidelined with an elbow injury, Jess Waitapu is the only other concern, the slightly-build goal attack still suffereing discomfort in the abdominal area after copping a heavy knock during the Fever match.
Jane Hunt
Kia Magic media liaison
Ph: 021-107-0287
