Talent Development

As far as our talent development pathways went, 2021 was a great year. We were able to deliver a range of regional Steel Steps one day camps throughout the zone for U14, U16 and U18 players, coaches and umpires. These were well attended in all regions and it was pleasing to see the players that attended these programmes playing in their centre representative teams later in the season at the various age group tournaments around the zone. We were thrilled to hold a three-day camp in April in Alexandra for players identified in the Steel Steps Accelerator Programme from the previous year. Attending the action-packed development camp were 40 players, 4 umpires and 4 coaches, gaining experience and knowledge from a host of topics and activities including Netballsmart, pool recovery activities and plenty of oncourt sessions. As part of our ongoing talent development programme, 80 players were selected to be in the 2022 Steel Steps Accelerator Programme during the age group and secondary school season. These players will be supported with an off-season training programme, mentoring from the Southern Steel players, preseason and specialist coaching sessions and the opportunity to attend training camps in April 2022. Netball South was also pleased to host the Otago Polytechnic South Island Senior Champs in Dunedin in early September. Ten teams from around the South Island, including two men’s teams competed over the two-day tournament. Dunedin Netball Centre were the eventual winners in a closely contested final against South Otago Netball Centre.

ASCOT PARK HOTEL SOUTHERN STEEL

As the Southern Steel entered the 2021 ANZP season we had a fresh new look about us. We recruited five new players into our roster and knew we had a team full of talent, ability and excitement. The best thing was we were a bit of a mystery package for our opponents. As we worked through the pre-season, we discovered this young talented bunch was also vulnerable and not quite up to the fitness standards we were accustomed to seeing in our players. This meant we had to manage loads and bodies very carefully to get us through to the first game. Given how strongly our players performed in the season our management of this was effective, although it might have given Steel fans some nervous moments to see us come through the pre-season games without winning a quarter. When George Fisher arrived, we had three weeks to fully prepare as a team. We went into 2 ½ weeks of intensive training. It was a netball pre-season on speed. We had to make changes and rapidly. We set about spending as much time as we could on and off the court to get to know each other and learn more about what made each other tick. Heading into game one against the Tactix at home, I felt we had done everything we could to get ourselves ready. After winning that game it gave us the confidence and drive we all needed to help us on our way to getting to those finals. Our performances on court were inconsistent at first, but by midway through the competition we had become real contenders and the belief and confidence of the team grew. Everything our fans could see about the connectedness of the team was rooted in a strong team culture that became the driver of our success. The team bonded well off court which meant they were happy to push each other and have performance conversations that left it all out on court. The drive to keep performing well and improving kept us honest and the success felt great.