Tactix suffer shooting circle injury blow

The Good Oil Tactix coach Marianne Delaney-Hoshek hopes to have shooter Ellie Bird back in action next week after her shooting stocks took a blow.

Bird missed the Round 9 ANZ Premiership match against the Steel in Nelson due to a head knock a week prior and did not pass return to play protocols.

She is continuing to work with the medical team and will undergo further tests this week to determine if she can take the court against the Magic back at Trafalgar Centre in Nelson on Monday night.

Delaney-Hoshek said she was hopeful for Bird’s return but would again call on Kate Grant and Amelia Walmsley who made their Tactix debuts against the Steel.

Grant, 30, sat on the Tactix bench in 2014 but was not called on for any playing minutes and Delaney-Hoshek said the Christchurch doctor made the most of her opportunities on Monday night despite her limited time with the team.

“Her movement on court was great and I think she really caught the Steel defence off guard. She also wasn’t shy of putting up the shot which was great.”

Howick College schoolgirl Walmsley had even less time to acquaint herself with her new team-mates having gotten the phone-call from Delaney-Hoshek on Saturday night and joining the Tactix the following morning.

Delaney-Hoshek said the 17-year-old showed plenty of composure for someone so young and provided a good target in the shooting circle.

“She was just a nice young breath of fresh air who really didn’t put a foot wrong out there,” she said.

The new shooting duo played their part in giving the Tactix every opportunity to win the Round 9 match despite the disrupted build-up to the match.

“I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t easy out there. Obviously we would have liked to take the win, having got in a position to do that.  But I thought our feeders did extremely well to change up with whatever was put in front of them.”

The Tactix were also without Jess Prosser for the match after suffering a knee injury while playing for Mainland in the National Netball League.

Prosser will continue working with the medical team, but remains unlikely to return this season.

Tactix coach Marianne Delaney-Hoshek said it was a blow for Prosser and the Tactix heading into the second half of the competition.

The Tactix have also ruled out training partner Hannah Glen who is recovering from a Grade 1 stress reaction and is out of action for four weeks.

Delaney-Hoshek has not had her full squad of 10 this season with injury ruling out goal attack Te Paea Selby-Rickit during the early rounds; wing Erikana Pedersen nursing a niggling Achilles injury and now Prosser out of action.

“We’ve been managing players returning from injury and obviously the latest injury blows have added to that. But we know we can still do this, we’re very determined to put out a good performance and we’ll take each game as it comes.”

The Tactix are in fourth place on the ANZ Premiership ladder and take on the Magic at Trafalgar Centre in Nelson on Monday, 21 June.