Mystics embrace new faces, new rules
MG Mystics have identified the introduction of rule innovations and a couple of new faces as the perfect fit heading into their defence of the ANZ Premiership title in 2025.
The Mystics have retained a proven core while injecting towering Australian shooting import Donnell Wallam, the versatile and experienced Holly Fowler, who can cover the defence and midcourt areas, and rising young gun and former training partner Charlotte Manley, an in-circle defender.
A member of the 2024 - 25 Australian Diamonds squad, the 1.93m Wallam, a late-blooming basketball convert, has played in the England and Australian leagues and has consistently sat near the top of shots for goals scored and offensive rebounds during her career.
Fowler returns to the club where she made her elite level debut in 2016, playing for the Stars and Magic in between while also suffering major injury setbacks.
"I think a little bit of change is always refreshing,’’ Mystics coach Tia Winikerei said.
"The injection of the newer players into the squad does suit the Mystics game style and we’ve got a fairly well-known and established game style, yet they have slightly different skill sets, so it gives us opportunity to play in different ways.
"And because we’ve had a lot of games in the pre-season it’s given us lots of time to try various things and the new rules have also opened new opportunities in thinking for the people in our team.’’
The introduction of the two-point shot for the 2025 season, which will come into play for the last five minutes of each quarter with double points on offer from range, has been the major talking point in teams’ preparations ahead of the season.
All teams have had pre-season opportunities to work on their strategies, the Mystics embracing the concept while mindful it will not just affect the shooters.
"I love that we have opportunity to innovate the game and I think the two-point shot opens up new opportunities for our range shooters,’’ Winikeri said. "At Mystics we’ve always had range shooters but we haven’t always utilised that to the full potential and I’m excited about the opportunity to see them flourish in that space.
"I’m also aware that I think the defence strategies around how to defend that are probably much harder than the attacking strategies. Shooting requires the accuracy, but attackers are used to playing with variety in different ways, so that is not so much of a stretch, even though the accuracy from the two-point shot is important.
"The defence styles will change depending on what the other team’s defence decide to do and how they choose to score along with the score margin. The score margin can change very quickly if one end is shooting twos and the other end is not.’’
Teams don’t have much wriggle room to navigate the intricacies of the two-point shot with this year’s competition being scaled back from three to two rounds. That has also meant a reduced pre-season and teams aware they need to fire from Round 1.
"The pre-season has been shorter but we’ve still had the same number of commitments on and off-court which creates a different scenario,’’ Winikerei said.
"We’re very aware going into the first round we have to be ready, very ready compared to other years. There will be no second chances.’’
In terms of goals for the season, all involved have worked hard to make sure the new players feel like they’ve connected well into the Mystics culture and they’ve been comfortable in contributing both on and off-court.
``Success to me would look like all our players being healthy, fit and able to play quality netball,’’ the coach said.
``From there, the results start to come, when you’re able to execute your game plan with the skills. I always look at it from a process point of view, and if the skills are sound and they’re good, and we can execute those freely, then we will win games.’’