Haier Pulse Determined to Learn from the Lessons of Brisbane

Media Release
19 April 2012

Haier Pulse Determined to Learn from the Lessons of Brisbane

Haier Pulse Head Coach Robyn Broughton and star player Joline Henry are confident that the team is preparing well for Monday night’s game against the EasiYo Tactix at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua, with the lessons from Sunday’s defeat by the Queensland Firebirds giving them a clear focus in training this week. Speaking in Masterton, where they took time out to pass on tips to the Wairarapa’s most promising young players in a coaching masterclass, the pair were keen to highlight that the squad had taken a long, hard look at themselves as they look to continue their promising start to the season.

“The game against the Firebirds was very physical, but that’s modern netball,” explained Robyn. “In this sort of game, you just have to meet it and deal with it or you’re not going to compete. Our defence did an outstanding job at the weekend, but we weren’t getting the goals in, so we’ll work on it and we’ll get there.

“We have been working hard on our accuracy this week. We just need to get our attack end working with more precision, making better decisions in our option taking and putting our shooters into good places to shoot comfortably. That’s where our problems were in Brisbane. The Firebirds came out with plenty of determination and resolve against us and we need to learn from that and make sure that we show those same qualities: determination and resolve. The Tactix have a pretty fiery defence which is full on, so we need to combat that if we are going to succeed.

“It is also important to ensure that the whole squad is properly prepared. There’s 12 players and all of them have to be ready. There’s always a possibility of a change in the line-up, either through injury or because we need to switch things round. It showed up last week how much depth you need in a team and that game-play in competition matches is so important.”

Silver Fern Joline, who has shown good form this year in her debut season for the Haier Pulse, was far from happy with her own display against the reigning champions. “I look at myself and my own performance,” she said. “The first thing I did after the game was to look at the video and I was appalled at some of the silly things I did. It doesn’t matter who you are or whether you are in the starting line-up or not, you should always be looking at yourself and always trying to improve yourself.

“The Tactix will present a different kind of challenge and I don’t think we can assume we can push them back too hard – they’ve got five international players in their squad with Stacey Francis, Anna Galvan, Maree Bowden, Jo Harten and Anna Thompson. They’re not a slouchy team by any means. They’ve got fast, experienced middies that we are going to battle to keep up with. They are a very fit side that will never give up and their defence is coming up with lots and lots of turnover ball.”

The Haier Pulse are at home to the EasiYo Tactix at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua on Monday at 7.40pm. The match will be shown live on Sky Sport 1 and don’t forget you can keep up to date with all the latest news from the Haier Pulse on facebook.com/Haier.Pulse or twitter @HaierPulse.

Match reports and statistics are also available from www.anz-championship.com.

ENDS

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