Steel make best possible start to the season
The Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel have made the best possible start to their ANZ Premiership campaign, dismissing competition favourites the Tactix 54-36 at ILT Stadium Southland this afternoon.
Left entirely out the play-off conversation ahead of the 2021 season, the Steel produced a statement performance against the team many are predicting are destined to secure Canterbury their first title at this level.
Such was the home team’s dominance in the season opener that the result was all-but secured with 10 minutes left on the clock.
English recruit George Fisher (45/48) was superb on debut for the Steel, storming her way out of managed isolation to show she’ll be a force under the hoop this year.
“We’ve trained really hard, we’ve trained our butts off,” Fisher said.
Tiana Metuarau won’t love her shooting return, but she provided plenty of presence in the circle and a handy foil in the early stages of the game until the midcourt started to develop a meaningful connection with the shooting end.
Once that was established, with Kate Heffernan and Shannon Saunders mixing patience with prescision, the stage was set for a very good Steel performance.
Steel’s defensive lineup of the veteran Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit, Taneisha Fifita and Renee Savai’inaea looked like a unit which has been together longer than they actually have, but the whole team looked relaxed from the outset and probably deserved a better result than an 11-all draw at the first break.
The Tactix all but fell apart midway through the second half, with the Steel good enough to capitalise on the pressure they had created, at one stage leading by seven and eventually taking the quarter 14-8 for a 25-19 halftime lead.
Some rockets from centre Heffernan to George Fisher underlined the confidence the home team were playing with and the Steel had forced their way out to a 10 goal lead before eventually taking a 38-30 advantage into the final quarter.
Tactix offseason signing Karin Burger did have an impact on the game, but too often it looked like she was trying to lift her team on her own.
Bloxham was also able to provide some valuable court time for the likes of Ali Wilshier and Sarahpheinna Woulf.
“I’m extremely proud of the whole team,” Bloxham said.
“We’ve worked extremely hard in the last two weeks and we had a really basic game plan and I felt like everyone who came on executed it. It wasn’t pretty at times, but it worked and I’m really happy.”
