Putting a horror Southern Steel season to bed

“This year has provided some of the biggest challenges as a coach but some of the biggest learnings I’ve had as well."

Southern Steel coach Reinga Bloxham.

Reinga Bloxham was pleased to see the back of the 2023 ANZ Premiership when she reflected soon after the final outing against the Magic in Invercargill.

Her team, the Southern Steel, had turned in probably its best performance of the season on Sunday but still came up short 53-52.

It meant the Steel finished the 2023 campaign winless, the first team to do so in the competition’s history.

Bloxham doesn’t hide from the fact it was the toughest season to date since taking on the Steel’s head coaching duties in 2016.

But she’s adamant she will be a much better coach on the back of dealing with what she has.

“It’s been tough. When I first started [coaching] I had a very successful team and then it’s come full circle.

“This year has provided some of the biggest challenges as a coach but some of the biggest learnings I’ve had as well.

“I’m actually really thankful for that. If you go through your coaching journey and everything is quite easy you just don’t know how resilient you can be.

“I’ve had to really make sure my processes are really solid. I’ve have to have a look at myself, I’ve had to up the anti as a coach I’ve had to try different things. I’ve had to deliver my coaching in a different way.

“I’ve been very lucky that I’ve got an awesome management group that I trust completely that they’ve got the right processes and routines.

“I’ll be glad to see the back of [the season] but I know I’ll take some huge learnings out of that.”

So, what went wrong? How have the Southerners turned from netball powerhouses to a winless season?

The loss of star shooter George Fisher to a serious knee injury during the pre-season was a massive blow.

The Steel has based much of their game around having Fisher in the shooting circle in recent seasons

Although Bloxham concedes it isn’t as simple as putting it down to the loss of Fisher.

She felt not having Shannon Saunders - who missed the campaign after becoming a mother - was a bigger impact than initially expected.

The Steel ended up with not a lot of experience in the attacking end of the court, with most of the experience instead at the defensive end.

“When we lost George we were all in this haze of losing her. But I think when we lost her it become evident very quickly that it wasn’t just the loss of George it was the loss of Shannon [Saunders] that was huge for us.”

“Game one for me was just a game one sort of performance, but I think when it got to about game three, and I think we might have played the Stars, and we got that absolute walloping, I thought, ‘Oh no, we’re in touble here’.

“That’s when it became very evident to me that we had to try to change something to create a different performance.”

Bloxham was pleased with some of the improvement shown from early in the season to its final game when they pushed the Magic to the wire.

“You have the best plans for this contracted 10 [players] but the other thing is I have absolute belief and trust in the players we have brought through. I think that they’ve done the best job that they could have done, and they’ve deserved an opportunity.

“They’ve been given an opportunity and now it’s about what they are going to do with that.”

The coming weeks will be massive for the Steel as it looks to piece together a squad that can make an impact in 2024.

At the moment teams are largely restricted to negotiating with their existing players. Teams have to wait until after the final before they can approach players from other teams about the prospect of snapping them up.

“We’ve already done a bit of reflecting as a coaching side and as a franchise about some of the gaps we may see. Not just within this team but within in our zone with who we think we might need or what area of the court we might need.

“We’ll still do a bit of reflecting over that in the next week or so and make sure we have a really good look and have a scout around, as will everyone else I imagine.”

Captain and veteran defender Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit was non-committal after Sunday’s game about the prospect returning again in 2024.

“I don’t know…. If I don’t play I just won’t play, you just won’t see me. You never know,” she told Sky Sport.

What we do know is Southland’s love of netball remains despite the horror 2023 season.

There were concerns some of the region’s lust for netball might be vanishing as crowd numbers had dropped through the season.

However, on Sunday the Steel faithful turned out in good numbers and most importantly they were at their vocal best.

The final quarter atmosphere mirrored a grand final rather than a game with nothing but pride on the line.

Bloxham said it was special.

“That crowd was unbelievable; you just don’t get that anywhere else.

“It’s such an awesome feeling, and even at the end of the game when people should be walking out to go home they just stayed.

“When the girls acknowledged the crowd, it actually made me really proud. It brought a tear to my eye.”

Bloxham will spend a bit of time reflecting on the Steel’s 2023 campaign before switching the focus to her next assignment.

She will join the Wales coaching group for the World Cup which will start on July 28 in South Africa.