SOPA Results

Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 9:57 pm

My thoughts on the little that we actually see at this cup:
STEEL
The Dehn/Frew (nee Telfer) combo is good. Watch out for it. Shut down that connection and they are gooooone imho. Barret-Chase is good but there does seem to be a better understanding between the other two. Barret-Chase was playing in a calf compression sock and had ice to it immediately after every game. She also walked more stiffly on that leg after games, so whether she has this recurring injury again or whether the ice was stiffening it up we'll see. What's her face - the tall young defender - oh yeah, Selby-Ricketts, was in good form and seemed lighter on her feet than previously. She'll do well to have consistent court time.

FIREBIRDS
As I said earlier, Steel and Scherian are raw talents. Scherian was frustrating with her court movement and slight panic when she received the ball (in that she often looked over eager to make a good pass and consequently had a bit of tunnel vision) but the times that she stood tall, opened her vision and saw it all, she had some of the best feeding of the weekend. In saying all that though - Wall is clearly the better player at this stage. Medhurst made a noticable difference every time she came on - which you'd expect of course, but it was nice to actually see it. But in saying that, all their shooters did pretty well I thought. M&M's has such a great drive out of defence, really sets it up for their transition and was nice to watch. Will be interesting to see what is done back there. M&M's is better than Steel CURRENTLY but is also a damn site better than Trompf (who, while effective, is till a bully and draws too much whistle). Both combos will be used at different times so will be interesting to see which combo ends up on court by the end of the season: Geitz/Steel/M&Ms or Geitz/M&Ms/Trompf.

VIXENS
Looked sooooo scrappy so many times. They have a clear starting 7 and a clear bench imho, which does not serve players like Shaz and Corletto well. Bloody lucky their best 7 are still looking the best 7 of the comp I reckon. SD liked Knott and I think she has improved heaps over the past 12 months and like her too but again, Thwaites will serve them better at this stage. I reckon Nash has it all over Weeennddyyyyyy and none of the bench defenders come close to Chatty and Jules.

SWIFTS
Fiiiiinally some depth in the shooting circle, which surprised me. Wild looked pretty good and while her and Welham are clear benchies to Prats and Cox (if fit), they will train really well and push Cox and Prats a bit more. Prats and Wild were getting a good combo going by the end of it! Liked Tairi better than Brazill, more consistent and threw heaps less away. Like Brazill better in WD, way too erratic in C, but as has already been said - Purcell should have that sewn up. Sam May looked fitter than in previous years but still not sharp enough imo. Still reckon they play a tad too wide and deep in the attack third and don't fully understand Julie F's tactics there, unless that is a Kim Green thing and not a Fitzy thing, but I would love to ask her about it and get it in my head. But, I reckon more GK's could come out hunting against the Swifts and knock off the big passes they often throw from one corner of the third to the other.

PULSE
NO idea against 1-on-1 defence. SOOOO many times the pass was on, but they hesitated coz the defender was riding closer to what they are used to in NZ, and lost the opportunity. This is why I reckon their midcourt will be their undoing. Their defence is solid and they have an OK shooting end but there is no transition and no style, class, maturity or good enough completion in their centre court. Not much else to say about them really.

FEVER
What a difference having a consistent GA makes!!! Even if Franklin's best is better than Shoard's (and it wouldn't be by much anyway!), the fact that Shoard can consistently make the drives and the passes and be available and have good timing etc etc, makes a huge difference to them. I think she will go OK and service Bassett better for them and really that's all they needed to get better completion. Centre court are still bullies though and (damn forgotten another name - not beckett, but bennet or something) a centre courter they have is like a bloody steam train. Makes a drive and damned be if anyone might try to defend her chosen path - she just runs straight over them! Janz still same with body control but got to some NICE ball, Furhman actually looked light on her feet at times! She is very pretty in real life too - just thought I'd throw that in coz her "game face" is a bit like 'der'.

Who have I forgotten, oh yeah - THUNDERBIRDS
Don't know why but I hardly saw them all weekend, so I don't have much to share, and totally missed Sutton in WA. She has played there before, I've seen her at State League, so it's not totally foreign to her at a high-ish level. All I can remember is that Bell looked OK in GA for them and moved the circle well with Beveridge, but they are going to miss Medhurst I reckon. I know some don't rate her in pressure cookers like finals series, but at least she'll get them there - not sure Bell would. But, you never know what consistent court time would do an she's been spouted as a talent for so long, I am looking forward to seeing how she would develop with good game time. Borrego looked heaps less off her game than I thought she would be and I have no idea which combo will fare better, coz I don't like Bevo in GA.

gonna be a good season I reckon!

Joined: 03 Feb 2007 Posts: 9860 Location: Adelaide

Thanks Xena. An entertaining read! Mr. Green

I like forumer reports so much more than the official ones!!

Joined: 09 Jul 2009 Posts: 2222 Location: Queensland

Thinking of Bolton, perhaps? I remember seeing her take a tumble over a few players last season. Laughing

Joined: 04 Feb 2007 Posts: 34085

Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 10529

Wendyyyyyyyyy Vomit

hows the other knee looking?

Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 10:05 pm

No, not thinking of Bolton - she was one of the bullies I was referring to. A good player but absolutely no class about her at all. Sarah Ebbott is who I was thinking of.

Joined: 03 Feb 2007 Posts: 2874

I went to most of the Saturday games. Thoroughly enjoyable. A few observations..

To my eye, the majority of the Steel players look porky and off the pace fitness-wise. Whatapity you can understand, with a couple of extra baby kilos and a loss of touch that comes from having been through pregnancy and childbirth very recently. De Bruin looked in fairly good physical shape, but again the loss of touch and timing was quite obvious.

It's the other players that would worry me though - players like Frew Frew, Burgess, Naoupu, Selby-Rickett could all stand to lose 2-3 kilos and pick up some speed. I have to disagree slightly with Xena about their midcourt combo - I thought Frew Frew looked pretty ordinary. Dehn of course worked magic in and around the circle, but FF is a passenger who does not work hard enough, and doesn't have the natural ability to make up for that!

LBC re-injured her calf in one game and had it heavily strapped for the remainder, and limped after every game, and struggled quite a bit. They have zero depth, played their top lineup for most of the games, which was the reason they managed to claw back a 9 goal lead from the Vixens (who had Richards, Caldwell and some poor hopeless girl on at GS - Popalo? - and the others in odd positions).

When Whatapity is shut down, which happened in many quarters, they struggle bigtime. So yes this is preseason Blahblah

but their deficiencies were there quite obviously. I'd be a bit owrried about them playing more preseason games this weekend, cos they looked knackered on Saturday afternoon, declining to do a normal warmup while all other teams on both courts were doing their normal warmup.

Joined: 03 Feb 2007 Posts: 2874

I really enjoyed seeing the rookies and ring-ins out on court. I was very impressed with the young GS for the Swifts, Gray, she is very quick off a couple of steps and has great timing and creativity. Pity she is quite short for a GS. Wild did OK but her accuracy is suss, she'd probably be on par with Erin Bell.

Caldwell is going to be a very good player. I'm impressed with her poise, speed, elevation, movement, shooting. Knott was OK, pretty Thwaitlyn-like. Erin Bell for Tbirds was OK but just doesn't have the full range of capabilities required for a GA in that team. Quite a step down from Medhurst. Didn't get to see Borrego in action. Bevo was in great form.

Amy Steel was OK, not the best netball she's produced, but she does have the goods. I overheard (OK, eavesdropped) on a couple of national selectors commenting that she is smart. OK so I'm not 110% sure that it was Steel they were commenting on, but pretty sure.

Kara Richards was very ordinary, but she wins the title of skinniest netballer even over Kimberley Smith. She's done a great job with the weights to eek out muscle tone but damn she is thin.

Bulley and Mkoloma will be a fantastic combo. Brazil at WD was great to watch also, Smith is good at WD but it would be good for Swifts to develop a specialist WD again, it's been a bit of a gap since Selina left. Tairi didn't impress me, she is capable of good feeding at WA, but doesn't work hard enough and finds herself out of position often. Mkoloma seemed to spend most of the games yelling to her, encouraging her to lead. Ware is a better player at this stage. Kim Green isn't 100%, still bothered by the injury I would guess.

Joined: 03 Feb 2007 Posts: 2874

Pulse have definitely improved, but I think they'll still struggle. Deficiencies in WA and C, though the blonde C did do some very nice defensive things. Didn't really see too much of the Fever. I think the Firebirds have the best depth, yes they were playing a pretty strong lineup most of the time, but they have the depth to make changes to just about every position on court and to not lose much, with GS and to a lesser extent GA being the obvious exceptions! Medhurst added a lot to their attack.

Joined: 09 Jul 2009 Posts: 2222 Location: Queensland

Thanks Lou! I laughed at "Mkoloma seemed to spend most of the games yelling to her". Laughing

Joined: 04 Feb 2007 Posts: 7916

Xena wrote:

She is very pretty in real life too - just thought I'd throw that in coz her "game face" is a bit like 'der'.

Joined: 28 Jun 2008 Posts: 2299 Location: Melbourne

Lou wrote:

To my eye, the majority of the Steel players look porky and off the pace fitness-wise.

Interesting - that was mentioned by one of the Firebirds' players (Steel I think, on the Firebirds website). I thought it was something the Steel were working on? Confused

Also, since Topia and Scanlan didn't make it to SOPA you'd think they would use thier bench more.

Joined: 03 Feb 2007 Posts: 2874

Yeah, there have been a few articles about their new fitness coach and the new scientific approach they are taking to their fitness and conditioning Confused

probably best to just lay off the pies and go for a few more runs a week Confused

Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 3515 Location: INVERVEGAS, NZ

Lou wrote:

Yeah, there have been a few articles about their new fitness coach and the new scientific approach they are taking to their fitness and conditioning Confused

probably best to just lay off the pies and go for a few more runs a week Confused

Unfortunately the last few years they seem to have been imbibing lots of oysters and other aphrodisiac foods..... as for pies - YUMMY JIMMY'S PIES!!!! rolling

Find the rest of the info very interesting Lou. It's a bit contrary to the info I've been fed from insiders.... in fact it's a full 180 regarding how fit they are and how you perceived them. They weren't wearing padding were they? Laughing

Ah well - que-sera.... just ONE MORE WEEK to go 'til we get a real gauge of where the teams are. YAYE!!!! Jumping

Joined: 03 Feb 2007 Posts: 9860 Location: Adelaide

Lou wrote:

Caldwell is going to be a very good player. I'm impressed with her poise, speed, elevation, movement, shooting.

Going to be hard for Howard to get back in at Vixens?