As we reach the midway point of the regular season of the ANZ Premiership, we talk to Trident Homes Tactix head coach Marianne Delaney-Hoshek about how her team is tracking and what she expects from the Mystics on Sunday.
Another week in the ANZ Premiership and another focus for the Trident Homes Tactix.
At the halfway point of the league, the Tactix find themselves at the top of the ladder and showing a consistency in form which suggests they have what it takes to make an impact at the business end of the season.
But for coach Marianne Delaney-Hoshek, there is only one game she has her eyes on and that’s Sunday’s big match-up with the Mystics.
“We are really happy with the performances we have put out so far,” she said. “We’ve shown some amazing fight and played some outstanding netball. But we are aware we are only half way there and there’s lots to come.”
Her immediate concern is tackling a wounded Mystics unit who suffered a surprise loss to the Steel last week.
Delaney-Hoshek expects the northerners to bounce back at home this week.
“I think we’ll see them really lift because they will have been disappointed in their performance,” she said. “They’ll come out firing, they’re at home, so I think they’ll put it all out there. That has to be our focus.”
Building on their narrow one-goal win over the Stars on Monday, the Tactix coach is excited that there is still so much her charges can give.
And confidence within the side remains high, showing they could come from behind for the tough victory.
“The belief is there,” Delaney-Hoshek said. “We were able to tweak a couple of things going into that last quarter against the Stars and execute it. That’s really pleasing to be able to do that and just the intent picked up and that will-to-win.”
The Tactix have won six games after seven rounds, falling only to the Pulse.
What has pleased the coach the most so far has been their ability to deliver a full team performance.
“We’ve been pretty consistent as a team across the games,” she said. “In terms of our centre pass to score it has been tracking well, our whole team defence has been pleasing – everywhere on court we’re pulling our weight and everyone’s doing their job and that’s the key thing.”
Now Delaney-Hoshek wants to push on and she is confident they can do so over the second half of the Premiership.
“There’s still a lot of work-ons because you’re never fully happy, but obviously to be sitting in first position on the table, there’s a lot of good stuff going on,” she said. “I still think we’ve got room for growth so that’s quite exciting if we can keep building and growing.”
She knows any team on any given day can upset the ladder no matter where they sit with points – shown last weekend with the Magic and Steel adding extra spice to the round.
There are just eight points between first place and fourth with the Finals Series on the horizon.
The Magic, sitting in fourth spot, was a team to watch, Delaney-Hoshek said, but they couldn’t afford to take any team lightly.
“You’ve got to respect every opposition going into each game and really just focus on that particular moment.
“We really need to play each game on its merit because, as we’ve seen, every team can have a really good game no matter their challenges.
“Getting better each game is our focus and it has been working for us so that’s where we want to push on from.”
- The Trident Homes Tactix meet the MG Mystics at The Trusts Arena in Auckland at 4pm on Sunday.