National pride on the line in ANZ Championship

National pride will be on the line, as well as crucial early points, in the ANZ Championship second round this weekend.

All but one of the five games this Easter weekend pit Australian state against state, New Zealand region against region, with some of the closest match-ups you will see in the competition.
Defending champions, the New South Wales Swifts fly west to meet traditional rivals the Adelaide Thunderbirds on Sunday – both teams notching up imposing victories in the opening round last weekend.

Although the Swifts have the mental advantage of twice beating the Thunderbirds last season, Swifts coach Julie Fitzgerald isn’t willing to forecast a repeat.

“It’s too early to predict winners or write anyone off, but one thing is for sure – the competition is so tight this season,” she says.

“They [the Thunderbirds] are our traditional rivals, but there’s a real rivalry between all the Australian teams this year. There’s great depth across the board in all five sides.”
Fitzgerald knows the Swifts will have to shut down the Thunderbirds’ bolstered midcourt, now Laura von Bertouch has been lured out of retirement to team up with her sister and Thunderbirds captain, Natalie.

“The Thunderbirds are a very polished team with a lot of depth and options. If you ask me the difference between the 2008 and 2009 teams, it’s in their midcourt where they’ve really got new strength.”

Fitzgerald was thrilled with the Swifts’ opening victory over the Mercury Energy Canterbury Tactix last Monday, calling it “the perfect first game – you could see what we have to work on, and we took two points from it.” Against the Thunderbirds, they will be working on their full-court defence.
In the other all-Australian showdown, the Melbourne Vixens meet the Queensland Firebirds, burned by a last-quarter assault by the Thunderbirds last weekend.

Captain Peta Stephens is hoping to be recovered from a torn calf muscle, boosting the Firebirds' defence against the Vixens’ dangerous shooter Sharelle McMahon, successfully returning from knee surgery.

The two New Zealand teams unbeaten after the first round - Colourplus Waikato /Bay of Plenty Magic and Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel – will meet in Tauranga on Saturday, both eager to establish an upperhand early in the competition. With 14 former or current Silver Ferns between the two sides, the game looms as an international test match.

Magic coach Noeline Taurua is hoping her team will snap out of their lethargy – despite dealing the Mystics a crushing blow first-up – and says her Silver Ferns-packed side have a long way to go to be in the running for the ANZ Championship title this season. The Steel, benefiting from the return of former Ferns captain Adine Harper, are working on capitalising on any turnovers they snatch from the Magic.

English shooter Pamela Cookey – player of the match in Team Bath’s Superleague victory last weekend – arrives in New Zealand this week to join the LG Northern Mystics, who will welcome her zip on attack for their home match against the young but promising Central Pulse side on Sunday.
In the only true transtasman encounter of the weekend, the Mercury Energy Tactix will be looking to lift their lacklustre season opener, in their home game against the West Coast Fever, who lost promising defender Larrissa Willcox to the Canterbury side this season.