Netball: New Fern Ellen Halpenny keeps focus on crunch match

Kia Magic goal attack Ellen Halpenny (right) was called into the Commonwealth Games' squad last week. Photo/File

A heady few days has not prompted any sense of distraction from Ellen Halpenny ahead of Kia Magic's imminent assignment, the ANZ Championship netball preliminary final against Queensland Firebirds, in Brisbane tonight.

After playing a strong hand in Magic's heart-stopping one-goal win over the NSW Swifts in the minor semifinal, the hard-working goal attack received the ultimate accolade for an impressive season with selection as the only new cap in the Silver Ferns team for next month's Commonwealth Games.

That in itself was a dream come true but with the chance now of progressing to the June 22 Grand Final against Melbourne Vixens, it has been a week to savour for the unassuming 23-year-old.

Having played in the Transtasman league since its inception in 2008, starting when she was just 17 for the Tactix, in her home city of Christchurch, Halpenny has faced a bumpy journey in between.

Since shifting to the Magic last year, the determined shooter's early promise has begun to evolve and as excited as she is about her recent elevation, for now it's one step at a time.

"It's important to keep the two separate and that's what I've been trying to concentrate on," she said. "They are two different teams and all my focus this week is with Magic on the Firebirds game."

Underdogs against the Swifts and similarly tagged for the Firebirds clash, Magic have continued to surprise many with their exploits this season. And despite some wobbly moments in the back half of the campaign, their unity as a team is continuing to build.

"That result against Swift has brought our team even closer together," Halpenny said. "Those bench girls were amazing in their support of us and it's just added another little bit of belief for us."

Learning from previous mistakes, Halpenny believed the team were getting better in the crunch situations where ball retention and decision-making were keys to success and that Magic were far from the finished product.

"There's still more for us to improve on and I guess this is another week for us to put it out on court and go about doing it," she said. "It's been an amazing journey with this team this year. We were written off at the beginning of the season and for us we just wanted to be that team that went out, fought for the whole 60 minutes and took every moment by the moment.

Magic lost a tight regular season contest with the Firebirds by four goals two weeks ago, a subdued Queensland team missing their opportunity of a direct route to the Grand Final when following up with a loss to the Vixens.