Netball: Oldest rookie adds steel to Mystics

Anna Scarlett's ability to make match-winning plays has made her a key ingredient in the Mystics' setup this season. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Anna Scarlett's netball career has been full of strange quirks. She's the woman who made her international debut as a teenager, and went on to carve out a place for herself in the Ferns starting side and then was famously dropped before the 2007 world championships. That prompted her to walk away from the game and pursue a beach volleyball career, only then to be reselected in the Ferns three years later having barely picked up a netball.

This season she has added another oddity to her netball bio - oldest rookie in the transtasman league.

A 51-test veteran, Scarlett had never played ANZ Championship netball until this season, with her two-and-a-half-year exile from the game coinciding with the the start of the new semi-professional league.

But lining up for the Northern Mystics this season, the star defender has made up for lost time.

Scarlett has been credited as one of the key figures behind the Mystics' breakthrough season, adding much-needed steel to the Auckland side's defensive line.

Her long reach, unpredictable movement and spectacular timing have made her a feared defender. But it is her knack for pulling off match-winning plays that has proved invaluable.

Look back to the Mystics' close wins over the Vixens (round 4), Magic (round 5) and Fever (round 9) and it is Scarlett that has come up with the key turnovers in those pressure-filled final minutes to secure the wins for her team.

The Mystics will need the 1.87m defender to come up with another inspired performance in Sunday's minor semifinal against the NSW Swifts if they are to advance through to the next stage of the play-offs.

The general school of thought is if goal shoot Catherine Cox is on song, the Swifts are on song. Which places huge pressure on the Mystics defensive end to keep the veteran Australian shooter well-contained.

It is a challenge Scarlett is especially looking forward to.

"I love playing against Cath, she is one of the hardest players to defend a shot or jump a shot against because she shoots just from the wrist, there's not many cues," said Scarlett.

"But I do think that when you play tight on her and shut down her movement in terms of when she comes out of the circle it does break up their attacking end and stop their flow a wee bit."

Scarlett believes the ANZ Championships has helped consolidate some of the learnings she took from last year's successful Commonwealth Games campaign.

"I've loved this year, I think it's been especially good for my development. It's my first year playing netball for a while and to play with three different partners [Rachel Rasmussen, Kayla Cullen and Jess Moulds] who each bring something really different to the game has been great."

"It was the best thing for me I think, if I was just playing one style all year then maybe I would struggle going in to the Ferns, because I'm still fighting for a starting spot in there."