2018 Team Preview: SKYCITY Mystics
With seven current or former Silver Ferns onboard and key learnings absorbed from last year, SKYCITY Mystics coach Helene Wilson comes suitably armed for a successful 2018.
Adding to the talent base of playing personnel, Wilson has injected the expertise of former Silver Ferns, Sonya Hardcastle, in her day a mercurial midcourter, and robust defender Linda Vagana, as specialist coaches.
``I think we’ve got a really exciting squad,’’ she said. ``We’ve got stability in our team from 2017 and adding (shooter) Jamie Hume and (defender) Phoenix Karaka to the mix hopefully means we’ve got more strength.
``The coaching group offers the meeting of three minds. Sonya is dedicated to excellence and with her high performance background, we have the opportunity to use those skills in giving our team a bigger repertoire to create more variety in the way we play.
``Linda reads the game so well from a defence perspective and will add a bit more depth to what we worked on defensively last year.’’
The key work-ons for Wilson in planning for this year have the been the length of the season, which includes at times playing three games in a week, necessitating effective player management, and the tactical component from a coaching perspective, where all teams play each other three times.
``You can’t just put the same product out on court three times in a row and expect to win,’’ she said. ``You have to really train a tool box that offers variety in the way you play the game.’’
With a year of the new competition under everyone’s belt, Wilson is expecting the intensity levels to lift in 2018 and has no doubts the ANZ Premiership provides the perfect platform to build and prepare New Zealand’s elite level of players.
``A lot of young players were exposed to ANZ Premiership in 2017 and I think this year, we’re going to get a lot closer competition, a lot more excitement, a lot more pressure opportunity across the teams and that’s good for growing high performance,’’ she said.
``It’s way too early to start calling judgements on whether it’s a success or not after one year. You have to go through a whole cycle, so we need to look at how we evolve the competition to support the development of players in New Zealand and the base of players across at least a four-year cycle.
``We’re only starting the process of growing our game, and going back to how we use the ball in flight, how we manipulate space…..all the things that New Zealand are traditionally good at.
``It’s a gift that we can practise that week-in week-out against each other as long as we demand the highest standard of performance. For me, the standard of consistency in performance and how we learn and grow our game to manipulate space and use the ball at speed are the two key elements.’’
2017 Placing: 3rd
2018 SKYCITY Mystics :
Tera-Maria Amani, Maria Folau, Anna Harrison, Jamie Hume, Phoenix Karaka, Samon Nathan, Bailey Mes, Storm Purvis, Elisapeta Toeava, Michaela Sokolich-Beatson.
Gains: Phoenix Karaka, Jamie Hume
Losses: Sasha Corbin, Mererangi Paul, Brooke Watt
Coach: Helene Wilson
Specialist Coaches: Linda Vagana, Sonia Hardcastle