Pulse keen for quick rebound on home turf

April 7, 2017

Pulse keen for quick rebound on home turf

Captain Katrina Grant has welcomed the short turnaround for her Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse team when they meet Mainland Tactix in ANZ Premiership netball action in Wellington on Sunday.

With the introduction of Wednesday night netball this season, the Pulse have had just three days to absorb a tense two-goal loss to WBOP Magic and prepare for the Tactix, but it can’t come soon enough for Grant.

``It is a short turnaround but a loss is always quite hard to deal with, so when you can play as soon as possible after a loss, it’s good and means you can get out there and right the wrongs and work on the little things from the game before,’’ she said.

``We’ll be wanting to improve from the Magic game. It was disappointing because we thought we could have won that game, so we’ll be taking to this Tactix game with the attitude of really showing what we’ve got.’’

Enjoying her netball and the new competition, the skipper was in vintage form with a standout performance in the Pulse’s latest outing. The team are excited to be playing at home for the first time this season and keen for a return to the winner’s circle.

The Tactix haven’t had the best of starts after losing their opening two games but there’s no sense of complacency from Grant.

``I’ve been in the Pulse for a long now and the Tactix always seem to bring their A game against us,’’ she said. ``There’s a rivalry which has always just been there and they always come in absolutely firing whenever they’re in Wellington.

``Things for them probably haven’t gone as well as they had hoped but I’m expecting them to really step up this week and we have to be ready for that.’’

Wearing the underdogs tag coming into the season, Grant is encouraged by the early progress of the Pulse and predicts with more time together, the team will only get better.

A positive outcome from the loss against Magic was the team’s ability to hang in the contest, repeated surges, although not quite enough to get them across the line, resulted in a well-merited bonus point at game’s-end. A bonus point is accrued when losing by five goals or less and could prove vital at the business end of the season.

``This weekend is our first home game so we desperately want to get a win under our belts,’’ Grant said. ``First, it’s a home game and secondly, we want stay near the top of the leaderboard. Even though it is only Round 3, we want to stay in touch and really get as many points as we possibly can.’’

The Pulse currently sit third on the six-team points table.

``We’ve got some young ones, new combinations and it’s just an exciting team. There’s a great team environment on and off the court and you can’t really ask for more than that,’’ Grant said

``All sections of our court work really well individually, when we tidy up the links between those three areas we’ll look really sharp.’’

ENDS.

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