Sargent frustrated with lenient refs

Harcourts player-coach Kelly Sargent is no sissy when it comes to imposing physical presence on a netball court.
But even she has been frustrated at the lenience of the umpires in enforcing the "no contact" rule in regional superleague matches this season. Speaking after her side's 79-35 beating at the hands of Naenae in a division one game played at the Taita courts on Saturday, Sargent said her players were still struggling to come to terms with the amount of "push and shove" being tolerated by those with the whistle.
"You can always expect a certain amount of roughing up at this level but, honestly, it's a lot worse than we ever anticipated," Sargent said. "It seems like the skill factor is being taken out of the sport and that it's becoming more a matter of who can outmuscle who. It's not nearly as enjoyable a game to play now ... or at least not to my mind anyway."
With the Phillip sisters, Waimarama and Te Ata, electing not to turn out for Harcourts on Saturday because of the Kuranui College ball that night, and Paige Drummond and Carlene Karaitiana being unavailable through injury their line-up for the Naenae match was decimated. In fact, they travelled to Taita with just the seven players and had the mortification of having one of their most consistent performers, wing attack Emma Foote, suffer recurrence of a knee injury just two minutes into the match. Typically, Foote battled on but with her movement limited she was nothing like her usual dynamic self. The fitness of defender Sarah Brooking, just returned from an overseas holiday, was always likely to be a concern too and when she was forced to retire late in the game with sore shins she was replaced by Michelle Teahan, who is awaiting surgery on a shoulder injury and was on hand as a supporter rather than player. Coach Sargent was pleased with the strong start by Harcourts which saw them level at 9-9 at one stage but the longer the game progressed the less efficient they became
"I suppose you could say we got out butts kicked in the end," she said. "They (Naenae) were just too sharp, too fit and too physical, we just couldn't stick with them."
Sargent is hopeful the bulk of her squad will be on deck when the first of the division one crossover matches are played this coming weekend. Just who Harcourts are playing and where the match will be played had still not been confirmed when these notes were penned.