Southern Steel hit another goal-scoring low
Southern Steel hit another goal-scoring low
If there were any doubts a season without star shooter George Fisher was going to be a massive mountain to climb for the Southern Steel, it’s plain for all to see now.
Eight days ago the Southern Steel hadn’t scored fewer than 40 goals in an ANZ Premiership match. They’ve now done it twice.
It’s not the sort of record the Steel had in mind to start its 2023 ANZ Premiership campaign, and they are in quick need of a shot of confidence.
The Steel was thumped 64-38 by the Northern Mystics in week one of the competition in what was the lowest team total put up by the Steel in an ANZ Premiership match-up.
Seven days later, on Saturday night in Wellington, the Steel went even lower in the 57-37 loss to the Central Pulse.
Even the special 200-game milestone for captain Te Huinga Selby-Rickit couldn’t spark something special for the southerners against the Pulse.
They trailed 13-8 after the first quarter, 27-16 at halftime, 40-28 at the end of the third quarter before finishing up 57-37 losers.
The Pulse’s defensive end, led by Kelly Jury, proved a nightmare for the Steel as they again struggled to put up enough shots to be competitive.
Jury picked up five intercepts and five rebounds.
If there were any doubts a season without star shooter George Fisher was going to be a massive mountain to climb it’s plain for all to see now.
Selby-Rickit told The Tribune after the game it’s on everyone in the team to make sure the Steel start to put up more shots and in turn compete, including her in the defensive end.
“We’ve come up against a really complete defensive unit each game. I guess for us as a defensive end, we just have to get more ball.
“Literally just flood our attackers with ball, because you are always going to make mistakes and we have a pretty young shooting circle.
“So as defenders we just have to get the ball, so they have more opportunities…I know [the shooters] will get better, they can only learn from these games.”
Selby-Rickit addressed the players after the game as to what she was keen to see from the team from here.
“For us, I’m okay with mistakes, to be honest, but it’s what we do after mistakes, our intent after mistakes. If you throw the ball away you get straight back on D and learn from it.
“I was just saying we actually need to start learning from our mistakes, we can’t let that happen over and over again.”
The Steel has just a couple days of to find some improvements with its next showdown against the Stars in Auckland on Monday night.
Selby-Rickit is happy the Steel get to back up so quickly and there wasn’t a lot of time to reflect on another tough loss.
“That’s good, I think. The best way to learn is by playing again instead of just talking about it.”
In terms of her 200th milestone game, Selby-Rickit is simply pleased it is done.
She had a big support crew of family in Wellington for the game, many had actually headed to Auckland last week, but Selby-Rickit was ruled out with a calf injury.
Selby-Rickit did feel it was quite a fitting milestone occasion given it was against the Central Pulse where she played some of those 200 games.
While the Pulse coach, Yvette McCausland-Durie, was also her first coach when Selby-Rickit played for the Western Flyers as a 15-year-old.
“I’m glad to get this game out of the road and move on. But, yeah, really wanted the win and really needed it, so quite disappointed in that.”