Nz In Race To Lure Back Top Kiwi

The Age

Thursday July 26, 2007

Linda Pearce, Adelaide

AFTER a year spent building steadily towards the favouritism it has earned for November's world netball championships, Australia will take another two months to decide how to fill the one apparent vacancy in its 12-player squad.

New Zealand, which will announce its team on Monday, has a one-player issue of a different kind.

Midcourt star Temepara George was missing from the series played in Auckland, Melbourne and Adelaide over the past week - unavailable for personal reasons while living in Townsville with her rugby league-playing partner.

She is likely to represent Queensland in the new Tasman Trophy competition next year.

Kiwi coach Ruth Aitken has only four days left to persuade George - with money, the promise of training flexibility, whatever it takes - to return to national duty.

Apart from a couple of notable late-game lapses, Australia controlled midcourt during recent contests, with Kiwi wing defence Laura Langman still a novice at centre and veteran Julie Seymour spent.

All of which makes George indispensable, and Aitken's seemingly doomed mission one of paramount importance to New Zealand's prospects of a title defence.

"I have great confidence in the group that will finally be chosen," Aitken insisted after Wednesday night's 54-47 loss of the third Test, and the series, in Adelaide. Yet she also ceded qualified favouritism to Australia after a sixth defeat in eight matches.

"I think you'd probably have to say that on the number of wins they've had lately, but we have to believe that we have got the goods," she said.

"We've got more work to do and I think we've got to work smarter, but we love a challenge and we're darn determined to be absolutely at our best come November."

So, too, Australia, despite a lack of composure and shooting steadiness later in the Adelaide Test, as NZ again made up a 10-goal deficit.

The difference from Melbourne was that, this time, the buffer was 15, and so the hosts hung on - shakily.

Australia's coach Norma Plummer said her players had again "got comfortable" when the lead blew out in the third quarter.

"But we're a pretty young group for the amount of time we have together and the changes that we've had within the team, so that will come, and we certainly will be setting ourselves priorities during our camps in September to address all of those issues."

Another element of Plummer's plan is to work on converting one of her more mobile goalers into an occasional wing attack as back-up to speedster Laura von Bertouch.

But, barring injury, 11 names appear to already be inked in for world championship selection, with one midcourt slot in the balance.

In this series, Julie Prendergast confirmed herself as a budding superstar at goal defence, covering beautifully for the injured Mo'onia Gerrard, and booking her place in the 12. So now it is NZ that must find some solutions to problems that include a hole at goal attack and, if George does not return, in the centre.

"I can't say I'm not pleased about it . . . I was the one at the other end when we were getting the thumpings, now that's sort of turned around, so I'm delighted," Plummer said.

"But I'd actually trade in those trophies for (the big one at) the end of the year because nobody's really got their name written all over it at the moment."

© 2007 The Age

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