Rata Tatas 'book ends' come up trumps in club final
“Aliyah is so talented and tall, it is very hard to get the ball off her. We had to do a bit of work out the front but they still managed to find her under the post."
They say experience counts for plenty in sport. It’s something that was highlighted from about 2pm at ILT Stadium Southland on Saturday.
Rata A took on fellow club team Rata Tatas in the Invercargill Netball Centre’s premier club final.
Rata A topped the table at the end of the round-robin phase and probably is best summed up as the younger team on the rise at the Rata Netball Club.
The Tatas team was a new team formed in 2023 made up of…. well…. let’s just say more experienced players.
It was that experience that shone through as the Tatas team led throughout the entire final after going up 13-7 after the first quarter.
They held a 18-13 halftime lead, a 30-18 buffer at the end of the third quarter, before finishing up 40-28 victors.
In some ways Andrea de Vries couldn’t lose on Saturday. While she was the coach of the Rata A team, she also is the Rata Netball Club’s president.
“Look the As certainly gave it their all, and I guess when you’ve got such book ends at either end of the court there is a real challenge, but everyone played their hearts out and gave it their all.”
The “bookends” de Vries mentioned was 200-plus game professional netballer Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickt at the defensive end and Aliyah Dunn, who has played for the Silver Ferns, at the shooting end.
“Aliyah is so talented and tall, it is very hard to get the ball off her. We had to do a bit of work out the front but they still managed to find her under the post,” de Vries said.
“[Tatas] really started with their foot down and kept it down through the whole match so it was pretty a pretty physical game. It was a really good contest.”
While disappointed her A team did not come away with the win, she again stressed having a strong and experienced team like Tatas in the competition this season was a good learning experience for the younger players.
Rata had multiple teams competing in finals on Saturday and came away with four tiles, which were in the Premier A, First A, First B, and Reserve grades.