Coaching

• Pukekohe Netball Centre Rep Tournament - All Age Groups - Sunday, May 26
• Auckland Netball Centre Rep Tournament - All Age Groups - Sunday, June 9
• North Harbour- All Age Groups - Sunday, June 16
• Howick Pakuranga - All Age Groups - Sunday, June 23
• Waikato - U17, U15, Yr 9 - Sunday, June 30
• Tauranga - U23 Local Derby Games (Netball Northern & Waikato BOP) - Saturday, June 29 and Sunday, June 30
• Waikato - U19-U23 - Sunday, 30th June at ASB Arena, Bay Park
• Waitakere - All Age Groups - Sunday, July 7
• Wellington - NZAGC - U19 & U23 - Monday, July 15 to Thursday, July 18
• Hastings - U17 (1), U17 (2) - Monday, July 22 to Thursday, July 25
• Dunedin - LFNC - Monday, September 30 to Saturday, October 5

Tournament Review 

Netball Northern Zone A Team Report - Helen Wilson - Head Coach

The Northern Zone U23 A team came together from across the greater Auckland area and committed to a campaign that was short but intense. A commitment from all ensured they were exposed to the reality of what was required to transition into playing ANZ one day. Quickly it was highlighted that to be good enough to represent Mystics, game skills and a sound work ethic were key attributes that they would develop. Trainings were a gruelling six hours on a Sunday each week where all players were both physically and mentally challenged and pressure scenarios were explored. This grew a greater understanding of each other as a team, how each individual reacts under pressure and what everyone had to go away and work on in their own time to ensure they could perform under pressure at nationals.

As expected, the U23 tournament was challenging and every team evenly matched which gave us ample opportunity to test the skills learnt from training. After the Tauranga derby weekend we needed to win one more round robin game at Nationals to reach the semi-finals. Although we were well planned to do this, we didn’t plan for the weather to stop us from flying into Wellington to play! Luckily our focused and problem solving expert – aka manager Jill Clapcott ensured a flight to Napier and drive to Wellington in ‘Mr Apple’s’ vans was organised without a hitch adding to the adventure of getting to the court to play. Every game was built on throughout the tournament with really promising performances from many players in the team. Beating Central in a physically challenging game put us into the semi-final playoff against WBOP. This was an opportunity to show our growth and improvement after losing to them by 16 goals in the derby weekend. Improve we did! Carli Botes did a ton of work at GA receiving 28 centre passes throughout the match and shooting a competent 21/26, she was feed accurately by Annie Rasmussen whose goal assists topped the stats for both teams. It was a pressure cooker game where every error was converted into points by the other team. We continued to supply our attackers with opportunities to score by a strong defensive line up who contested every ball, allowing our GK Temalisi to come through to collect a whopping 17 defensive gains throughout the match. Going into the last few minutes of the match both teams were even and WBOP came out winners on the scoreboard 45-42. Not the result we were after but what an awesome match and huge learning!

The journey in this campaign was new for all, the limited time together ensured everyone trained hard and held each other accountable. Training didn’t always encompasses the whole team (with Mystics commitments) so efforts were concentrated on skill improvement and understanding principles of play. Learning that high performance is about being uncomfortable at all times helped to feed the continuous desire to be better each day. The campaign can be measured as successful by the individual growth of team members in the team. Watching them take calculated risks, learn and adapt to mistakes, implement game plans successfully and feel confident to strive towards their potential was inspirational. I am a very proud coach who looks forward to seeing the continued growth of these players as they continue to work hard in the world of Netball.

Netball Northern Zone ‘B’ Team Report

Team Preparation – We “Set the Tone” early. Understanding the “Purpose of the Campaign”,

The priority of this campaign was to develop and grow players to Elite, high performance athletes, to ensure readiness to progress to ANZ. To prepare them in every component required including fitness levels and skill level. As important, to introduce them to a professional environment that demanded their full commitment, a high work ethic and work rate. The traits expected, being no different than what would be expected and required at ANZ level.

We also set clear team goals and personal goals as clarity of expectations.

Highlights of best games – This team had many highlights. As the “B” Team, we showed character and guts against top teams, pushing teams and forcing them to keep main line-ups on court.  I felt we were consistent throughout the week.

Stand out players or any achievements in terms of stats – Tuaine and Jessica were our co-captains and both led by example all week on and off court. They stood up when we needed them to, they were both professional and always had the team’s best interest at heart.

A mention of thanks to the managers, physio etc – Debra was outstanding – she had everything off court covered. She is very experienced and its great as a coach when you can focus totally on the team and whats going on on court. Vicki was fantastic as well – always supported me with my decisions. She also had lots to offer and we worked extremely well together. Must also mention Ben, he put his heart and soul into the girls fitness and conditioning sessions. He was fabulous aligning his expertise with my requirements as a coach for the team.  I had the fantastic group of people to work with.

A personal ending to it all  - ie : How the coach enjoyed it, or key learning’s –

It was great to have the opportunity to field two competitive teams from the Northern Zone. This group of players worked really hard, were put under pressure, were taken out of their comfort zone and built a great team environment, which was reflected in their on court performances. Key learnings for me as the coach – was how you can build a team that believes they can compete and wants to continuing lift and prove themselves everytime they took the court. 

Team Managers Workshop

Download flyer here

Strategic planning

The last two months have been spent meeting with as many of you as we could from the netball centres across the Zone. We were really pleased with the number of people who attended the meetings and the open and frank discussion that was held with everyone. The staff and board of the zone feel that we have been given a really good steer around the issues that are facing a lot of you and we thought that there were a lot of similar issues but perhaps in some places, different priorities. There is certainly not a one size fits all solution to a number of the concerns raised. There are also a huge amount of really good projects underway and really positive feedback about what is working well. It's been a really interesting time meeting with the centres and we have all enjoyed it. I would like to thank all of you for the time that you have put in so far.

I have now attached a DRAFT strategic overview of the future direction of the Zone. The board would like your feedback now about what has been drafted. At the same time we are also preparing an action plan that will fit under this strategy - and we intend to present the complete and final document to you before the end of May. Can I please have any feedback to me by Wednesday 24 April? There will be further opportunities to tweak the document again before it is finalised.

Communication

The Zone web site is underway and the Zone face book site is up and running. You can check this out under Netball Northern Zone.

One of the consistent concerns I have coming back to me is that we are not always communicating with the right people and that there are a number who have not been receiving the newsletter. To increase our ability to communicate better with the all of our stakeholders, Tash's role has evolved from managing just the Mystics communications, to a whole of Zone approach. Can you please let Tash (tash.osborne@netballnorthern.co.nz) know of any email addresses that need to be added to our newsletter database – it is vitally important to us that we are communicating with all of the right people. We are sending this newsletter mostly to Centres at the moment - please make sure you are passing on to the relevant people in your netball community.

Organisational Chart

I have attached an organisational chart which details the staff working within the zone.

Please note that the Mystics team and coaching team are fully funded by the LG Mystics. In addition to this the development staff (Tania, Tamara and Jan) and all also funded from external funding - not the Zone.

We are starting to gain some clarity around the Community Netball and High Performance roles. Hamish's HP role is not strictly High Performance, his role begins at developing performance pathways through to HP pathways. Performance has recently been defined as the U17 rep team level, so Hamish will be your point of contact for support ( if required) for U17's up and Trish will be involved with any age groups or community netball aspect up to U17. Trish and Hamish will work together in terms of filtering information and guiding centres around U15 player and coach development.

Teams

LG Mystics

Next home game is on Monday June 10 against the Central Pulse - WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!! Come along and cheer your team on.

Lion Foundation Funding NPC Teams

The Lion Foundation application was placed and will be heard this month.

If you have any feedback – or questions, please let me know - have a great weekend!

Julie Paterson CEO
Ph (09) 913 0834 or 021438955

Chairperson - Elected

Mary Gardiner

Chairperson

Deputy Chair - Appointed

Michele Teague

Deputy Chair

Elected Members

Sulu Fitzpatrick

Anna Richards

Appointed Members

Sue Brewster

Rawinia Newton

Kurt Tyson

Co-opted Members

Simon Lapthorne

Anton Tyers

Heidi Wilde

Hamish Barton

Hamish Barton comes to the Netball Northern Zone from a cricketing background. He spent the last 4 years working as the National Coach Development Manager for New Zealand Cricket and also worked as assistant coach for the New Zealand Women's cricket team, the White Ferns, the highlight of that role was being part of the team that competed at the 2012 International Cricket Council T20 Women's World Cup in Sri Lanka.

Previously, before starting at New Zealand Cricket, Hamish spent 4 years as National Coach and High Performance Manager for the Argentinian Cricket Association. In that role Hamish was responsible for the U17, U19, Argentina 'A', National Team and the Women's National Team. He was also heavily involved with the establishment of the National Argentine Officials Association.

Hamish is honoured to be in the role as High Performance Manager for the Netball Northern Zone, he knows there is a huge amount of talented players, coaches and officials in the area and is excited about the prospect of working with the great people who are involved with High Performance Netball within the Netball Northern Zone.

Hamish's role entails developing a High Performance Strategy for the Netball Northern Zone and he believes the success of that programme will be judged by the amount of players, coaches and officials we have involved in the Netball NZ High Performance Programme, "our overall objective with the Zone's HP Programme is to develop players, coaches and officials who have the right skills, a strong work ethic, who understand what HP sport is all about, have quality support structures around them and have a balance in their lives that enables them to be successful in a High Performance Netball environment".

Hamish is in charge of managing the U23 programme and establishing clear links with the U23 programme and the Northern Mystics, working with the Netball Centres to assist them in developing their U17, U19 and LFNC programmes, and working with Performance and High Performance Coaches and officials across the Zone to ensure the standard of coaching and officiating is of the highest quality which of course enables the development of high quality athletes and ensures the game is being officiated at the highest standard.

Kiri Wills

Congratulations to the following players that have been selected in the Netball Northern Zone 'A' Team and Netball Northern Zone 'B' team for the inaugural Netball New Zealand National U23 Competition that was played in Wellington on July 15 to 18 2013.

Netball Northern Zone U23 'A' Team

 Netball Northern Under 23 A-Team Dress:

Netball Northern Zone U23 'B' Team

Netball Northern Under 23 B-Team Dress: