Foote’s absence a blow to Harcourts

Harcourts will be without one of their most consistent players, Emma Foote, when they take on Wellington East in a regional superleague division one netball match at Porirua tomorrow.
Foote suffered a knee injury during the massive 50-plus goal defeat at the hands of powerful PIC 1 in Masterton last weekend and could well be sidelined for the remainder of the season.
The absence of the always assertive Foote is a huge blow to Harcourts for she is one of those players who thrives on a challenge, and playing a Wellington East team which won the Wellington premiership last season will certainly be that.
Particularly just seven days after their confidence-boosting 20-goal win over a St Marys Old Girls side which actually beat Harcourts by 20 in their debut game in the superleague competition.
Promising St Matthew's Collegiate player Paige Drummond was drafted into the Harcourts squad for last weekend and was expected to be part of the action again tomorrow. However, she is battling an ankle injury and is in the "doubtful starter" category.
Not surprisingly then Harcourts coach Kelly Sargent was still unsure of what her starting line-up would be when spoken to yesterday but whatever it is she is certain of one thing; they would have to complete "100 times better" than they did against PIC 1 to make a decent game of it.
"We got smashed, we just never got in the game," she said of that defeat. "Yes, they were good but we made them look a hell of a lot better than what should have been the case."
Sargent said the focus for Harcourts tomorrow will be on implementing a simple game plan which relied on them doing the basics well.
"We don't need to be too smart or too flashy, we just want to go out there, retain possession for as long as we can and put the goals in, " she said.