The 'flak' that followed the Steel coach's playing callup
“I guess people don't know the whole picture around that. For us, it wasn't about taking anyone's pathway away from a younger player."
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Southern Steel coach Wendy Frew acknowledges the decision to play assistant coach Liana Leota in round one of the ANZ Premiership didn’t sit all that well with everyone.
Although she points to a pretty key reason as to why it unfolded as it did.
Steel lost captain Kate Heffernan days out from its competition opener against the Tactix in Christchurch with a knee injury.
Amongst the injury cover was Leota, who at 40 years of age came out of retirement, a decade after her last game at that level, to play against the Tactix.
“It's quite a tough situation that, there's been a little bit of flak bringing [Liana] in.”
The writer of this article was one of those who questioned the situation, especially when, soon after, the Stars also opted to bring Kayla Johnson out of retirement to cover injuries in their camp.
It raised questions about the player depth in New Zealand netball and the development pathway work when teams were needing to lure players out of retirement so early in the season.
Although Frew told The Roar Podcast this week, in the Steel’s case, it was simply a case of timing.
Heffernan injured her knee in Invercargill on the Thursday before the Sunday competition opener in Christchurch, and she was ruled out on the Friday, the day before the team flew out.
“I guess people don't know the whole picture around that. For us, it wasn't about taking anyone's pathway away from a younger player. It was purely the fact that on Friday, probably under 24 hours before we flew out, we had to have a team to go.
“And we've spent so much time in pre-season on our attacking structures and they're not a simple attacking structure to pick up, so for us, [Liana’s] been in the environment, she's taught all the girls so that that's the decision we made with her,” Frew said.
“It's been a bit of a tough one that, but [Liana] done a job when she got on there. We could still keep our attacking flow.”
Added to the mix was the fact that one of the Steel’s training partners, Grace Southby, who probably would have been called in, was sick that week.
“So, just all these little factors that were tough. But in saying that, we could still stick to our game plan in the attacking way we wanted to play the game,” Frew said.
“And [the attacking structure] is different than all these players have experienced in the past. So, it's really important that when we bring people in, that we know that they can stick to what we're trying to achieve on the court and really go with it.
“Otherwise, our whole attack end changes in our focus,” Frew told The Roar Podcast.
The Steel have showed obvious signs of improvement through its first three games of the 2025 ANZ Premiership, which have included a win over the Magic and pushing defending champions the Mystics to the wire on Monday night in Dunedin.
Steel has had to do that while juggling injury issues.
“[There’s been] a lot of stress behind closed doors, to be honest with you,” Frew told The Roar podcast.
“We had a couple of blows early that we had a couple of players come in injured and they were more or less out for probably the first good six weeks of pre-season. So that was really hard to juggle that.
“At times we only had five training with limited loads and just getting into that pre-season feel with their bodies. So, it has been a bit of a juggling act, but our management team's been tight.”
Headlining those injury struggles has been Heffernan’s knee problem. The Silver Fern and captain hyperextending her knee was a lot for a rookie head coach to have to deal with days out from the season opener.
“To be honest, that was probably my most stressful day on the job was that Friday when I heard she was out.
“She just hyperextended her knee on Thursday at training, and she walked off and [said], ‘all good, I'll just rest it'.
“Then there was a little bit of eye contact with the physio, thinking, oh you know what's going on here. Then the MRI in the morning, sure enough ruled out.”
The original thought was Heffernan would be ruled out for the season, but the good news is that isn’t expected to be the case.
“Kate's working extremely hard to get back on the court. She's been a true professional, I couldn't fault the effort she's making,” Frew said.
“The likes of Kimmy [Poi] is a true professional, and she's really stepped up in that leadership role, along with Abby and some other players.”
The Steel’s next assignment will be against the Pulse at ILT Stadium Southland in Invercargill on Sunday.