It seems each year the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic team like to give us a shock at the beginning of the season.
In the first few rounds of the ANZ Netball Championships, they almost lull their opponents into a false sense of security by not looking like the strong teamthey are on paper.
This year was no exception for the defending champs, dropping several games in the first few rounds.
But now the local girls are coming good. They are almost certain of a top-four placing and could secure a home semifinal.
If they win the champs again, it would be the perfect ending for the league's most successful coach, Noeline Taurua. She is to leave the Magic franchise at the end of this season.
Under her leadership, Magic have been the only team to make the play-offs every year during the semi-professional era of the competition, the only team to make three grand finals and New Zealand's only team to win the competition.
Taurua is one of just two coaches, with Jane Woodlands-Thompson (Adelaide Thunderbirds), to have survived the duration of the ANZ Championship, which was launched in 2008. Taurua isn't a conventional coach - rubber stamped when she put Irene van Dyk into goal attack (with some success) - but she's certainly a passionate one.
Here in the Bay we love our netball and are extremely proud of Taurua's achievements. So let's get behind our Magic girls and cheer them on to the finals.
