'Pretty special': Third-time lucky for the title-winning Tactix

Otago Daily Times

2 days ago

By Bridget Tunnicliffe of RNZ
Nothing pleased Tactix coach Donna Wilkins more than seeing her veteran players win their first ANZ Premiership title in the red dress in Auckland on Sunday night.
The Mainland Tactix won netball's ANZ Premiership for the first time by stunning the Northern Mystics 58-46 in the grand final.
For Jane Watson, Te Paea Selby-Rickit, Erikana Pedersen, and Ellie Bird - they had suffered two heart-breaking grand final losses in 2020 and 2021.
They came the closest in 2021, losing by just two goals to the Mystics. By then Karin Burger had joined the side and had well and truly become a stalwart of the team.
Wilkins said the thought of winning an elusive title was what kept bringing some of the older players back.
"It's pretty special… we don't know who's going to come back next year, our focus has been on finals. For some of those old heads and experienced ones that keep coming back because they want to win a championship, that's what I'm most proud of now they've got it," Wilkins said.
Tactix captain Pedersen embraced Selby-Rickit straight after the game.
"She just said that she felt relief - was her first emotion and it is a bit like that because I know we deserved to be here and deserved to win, we've worked so hard.
"We had a lot of people doubting us, you know as they should, we came to Mystics territory, they were number one but we knew we could do it, we had the full belief, we've trained our butts off. The last few weeks in particular our intensity at trainings have been unreal… we've been coming out of them exhausted."
Tactix shooter Ellie Bird capped off a superb season by shooting 50 from her 53 attempts, and even pulled off two intercepts.
Just two weeks prior, the Mystics had beaten the Tactix by 14 goals to win the minor premiership and advance straight to a home grand final.
Everything was stacked against them - the Mystics have won every grand final they have appeared in, and six of the eight grand finals had been won by the team who claimed the minor premiership.
But the Tactix showed a lot of fight when they beat the Pulse in the elimination final and Wilkins philosophy? "Finals netball is getting into it and giving yourself a chance."
The former Silver Ferns defensive pairing of Burger and Watson picked up where they left off from that Pulse game.
Watson unsettled Australian import shooter Donnell Wallam, who had not looked flustered all season.
"They are big game players, they are experienced, they are used to playing against tall shooters. I told them they needed to get touches early and Jane did right from the get-go so it made it a little bit doubtful for them to just let rip and throw that ball in," Wilkins said.
"They were doing one or two more passes before they would launch it in, whereas a couple of weeks ago it was just 'catch-boom', so we needed to nullify that connection between Peta [Toeava] and Donnell and I think we did a good job of that.
"And because we are so clinical in looking after our own possession off our centre pass, even if teams hit a couple of two point shots, they don't make headway and we showed that on Monday night."
Once again Wilkins stuck with her starting seven, apart from a brief period where Pedersen had to come off the court due to cramping.
"Everything was going, my toes, my calves, my quads, my hips… but we knew we needed to prepare for a tough game, I think Teeps [Selby-Rickit] started cramping as well," Pedersen said.
Despite the cloud hanging over the domestic competition, with Netball New Zealand still trying to pin down a broadcast deal for 2026, Wilkins said none of that was a distraction.
"We had an opportunity to win a championship, that's been our focus, it's been about us."
She was looking forward to taking the trophy to Christchurch.
The Tactix and their National League predecessors, the Canterbury Flames, had not won a title since the introduction of franchise netball in 1998. The Flames played in four Coca-Cola Cup/National Bank Cup finals but lost all four to the Southern Sting.
"It's a long time coming, enjoy just being together as a team and enjoy the moment with our family and friends and we'll worry about next year next week," Wilkins said.
The Tactix may look a little different next year.
Bird is off to Australia and doesn't plan on coming back for another season. It remains to be seen whether the likes of Pedersen and Watson might call it a day.
Selby-Rickit had one of her finest seasons and the 33-year-old may well be on the radar of an Australian team. Mentor with her
To guide the Tactix to the title in her first season as head coach is a dream start to Wilkins' elite coaching career.
Pedersen was full of praise for the former Silver Fern and Tall Fern.
"Donna's been in our position, she knows what it's like to play in high pressure matches. She's very disciplined in the way that we play on attack but she's just brought this winning mentality, like even warm up games, she's is all about winning and I love that because I think that's what our Tactix team needed."
Competitive, clinical with possession, and sticking with a starting seven are all traits associated with the late great Robyn Broughton, one of New Zealand's most successful netball coaches.
Broughton became an icon of Southland netball during her long tenure with the Southern Sting, where she was head coach from 1998-2007, winning a record seven Coca Cola/National Bank Cup titles during that time.
Wilkins played many seasons under Broughton, as did Tactix assistant coach Te Huinga Selby-Rickit.
When Wilkins was asked what the legendary coach would have made of it, she shared that she treasures a photo of her old friend.
"Well I actually brought [the photo of] Robbie with me, I normally talk to her before we play our home games but this week I thought I better take it with me and I think it might have helped. She's always there, God she coached me and Hu [Te Huinga Selby-Rickit] and a lot of the players, it's pretty special," an emotional Wilkins said. Mystics not blindsided
The Mystics were denied a historic three-peat and were denied a chance to play their best netball.
Despite easily beating the Tactix two weeks prior, Mystics coach Tia Winikerei said they knew the visitors were going to bring some venom.
"When you get beaten like that and you're a quality side like they are, you come back fierce and you want to win.
"Tactix came out very very strong and we didn't cope with that very well… we let them over power us, we actually just didn't execute what we should have in that first quarter and that hurt us for the rest of the game.
"I didn't see any momentum shifts throughout the game and so the story of the first quarter was almost the story of the whole game."
Mystics captain Michaela Sokolich-Beatson said they were not blindsided - "They did exactly what we thought they were going to do."
The Tactix have now become the fourth franchise to win the title, since the competition began in 2017.
The Steel have won twice, and the Pulse and Mystics three times each.