Netball: Van Dyk cool as ice

Irene van Dyk. Phil Walter/Getty Images

Irene van Dyk should really be shaking, quivering even.

Not because the Silver Ferns' arch enemies Australia have brought in a towering young defender to try to outmuscle her but because she is standing thigh deep in icy water.

The Silver Ferns were in Auckland on Monday for a timely get-together before they depart for the Commonwealth Games next week.

The day-long session ended with a hit-out on the court, after which the players were off to the changing rooms for the old hot and cold treatment. Players alternate between barrels of hot and cold water to get their blood pumping to speed recovery.

With her arms draped over the cubicle walls, van Dyk chats away as though she is sitting in some cafe rather than a tank of freezing water, which has drained the colour from her long, lean limbs.

With a Games gold medal beckoning, it is clear this New Zealand team is already in the zone.

Their bodies finely chiselled, their minds frighteningly focused - the team resembles the one who conquered Australia in the world championships final two years ago.

The one where coaches Ruth Aitken and Leigh Gibbs reckoned the two of them could have flagged the final and slunk off to the beach for a pina colada so in control and focused were their team.

"We have been preparing for so long, we don't want to train any more," van Dyk said. "We just want to go and play now."

Understandably so. If there ever was a gold medal-winning chance, this is it.

Since stripping Australia of its world No 1 status in 2003, the Silver Ferns have won six of eight matches against the green and golds. Their last meeting brought about Australia's biggest loss to New Zealand, by a record margin of 25 goals in October.

"There is no pressure," van Dyk said. "Australia are going to come back stronger than ever before, but we are prepared for it."

They are also prepared for 1.96m defender Susan Fuhrmann, a player the Australians have nicknamed the "Fuhrminator".

When asked what the name Fuhrmann means to her, van Dyk candidly replies: "You mean the tall person they think is going to totally annihilate us?"

Um ... yeah that's the one.

"It takes more than one person to get to the bottom of what we have done. It means absolutely nothing to me. I just know that she is really tall, really skinny and that she has been injured.

"I think we have enough level heads around the goal circle. If they combat me, we have a goal attack who is more than capable of taking the pressure.

"That is the nice thing about this team. ... as soon as someone is out of play there are six others who are going to cover that."

Van Dyk can't recall playing against Fuhrmann.

"I don't even know what the girl looks like."

According to the Australians the pair met in 2004 when the Silver Ferns travelled to Australia for a series of pre-season games. Fuhrmann, playing for the AIS Darters, apparently nabbed two interceptions off van Dyk.

But van Dyk nailed the majority of New Zealand's 84 goals - 45 more than their rivals.

So how does it feel to be the crucial cog that Australia want to remove.

"I don't see it that way. I am so comfortable with the goal attack I am playing with it doesn't really matter - somewhere along the line I am going to be in play. It is just sorting it out and the quicker the better. It is just getting into their heads, finding their soft spots, then playing off them."

She said that if Fuhrmann did take the court - which would mean edging out the experienced Alison Broadbent, Janine Ilitch or Bianca Chatfield - it would not force the Silver Ferns into a rethink.

"I think ultimately the understanding between the middies [mid-court players] and me and the goal attack - the ball speed is going to kill any defender really.

"I am conditioned enough to combat that and I think I am strong enough to hold her and look ... she is inexperienced. Surely my experience will count for something."

Following on from their crushing win over Australia in October, van Dyk said the Ferns had worked hard on "new, innovative ideas".

"We are trialling new things. Although we played pretty well against them, there are always things to work on.

"We have done all the nitty gritty work, and it is just going out there and not forgetting the basics," she said, edging herself out of the ice bucket.

"We have never won a gold before so now is probably a good time."

Irene van Dyk

Position: GS

Height: 1.90m

DOB: June 21, 1972

Occupation: Teacher

National Bank Cup Team: Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic

Caps: 57 for New Zealand, 72 for South Africa.

Nickname: I's