Long-serving Grant back for Pulse in 2018

Long-serving Grant back for Pulse in 2018

Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse are delighted to have retained the services of influential defender and popular captain Katrina Grant for the 2018 ANZ Premiership netball competition.

Beaten finalists this year, the Pulse had a season to savour after making the play-offs for the first time in their 10-year history, the long-serving Grant, 30, having no hesitation in re-signing for a ninth successive campaign with the Wellington-based team.

``I’ve been with the Pulse a long time and we made the finals this year which was significant,’’ she said.

``I am obviously getting that little bit older and the Pulse have been really good to me over the years I’ve been with them. I love Wellington, I love the people and I really wanted to be loyal to them.’’

Voted the Pulse’s Most Valuable Player for 2017, the agile defender, who is also the Silver Ferns captain, is already looking forward to building on the momentum achieved this year.

``Our young ones were outstanding and did so much for us this year,’’ she said. ``They’ve grown immensely and watching how far they can go with another year under their belts would be pretty special.’’

Already well into her planning for next year, the retention of Grant was key for coach Yvette McCausland-Durie.

``It’s critical because she’s obviously a quality player and that makes a massive difference in terms of performance,’’ the coach said.

``On top of that, what I think has been really great to see in her this year is lots of growth. Growth in her leadership, growth in her performance and through that we saw greater consistency. She’s still got so much to offer in terms of that professionalism around her preparation to the game and her ability to know what’s required in tough matches is really huge for us.

``She leads by example. She’s not a person of a huge number of words, she prefers to just be a doer. She puts the highest standards of expectation on herself. She engages well with the rest of the group but the priority for her is let’s do what we can to make sure performance is right.’’

Grant is the first of the Pulse signings for next year’s competition.

ENDS.

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