It's easier to appreciate netball skills in flesh

Kayla Cullen. Photo / Getty Images

Entree choices to the test cricket at Headingley were a second night of Dancing with the Stars or wandering out west for a courtside debut at the netball.

Any sport from archery to zip-lining will get my attention and at various times in every ANZ season, the remote will settle on a netball game. I confess, it does not linger.

Same with basketball. I've watched the Breakers live and the Brooklyn Nets go about their business in the magnificent Barclay Centre in New York and they are great occasions but the sport does not stir my blood as much as others.

I'm content to watch the late stages of basketball or netball matches and remember the Silver Ferns exhilarating double overtime Commonwealth Games gold medal at Delhi in 2010. Colleagues decided it was time to test my thoughts about watching a live netball game.

They called my bluff and pointed me in the direction of the Mystics hosting the Vixens last night.

Usually the All Blacks are in my sights at Trusts Arena where the complex offers a wide range of training and playing facilities for the team while the fourth estate are kept outside until we are ushered in to hear some scripted bon mots.

Covering netball is bliss. Inside, out of the weather, close enough to dispense with the binoculars and hear the action.

This was netball with the stars of the New Zealand division - Kayla Cullen, Maria Tutaia, Paula Griffin, Camilla Lees and their buddies - great athletes who perform with incredible intensity. Their on-court warmup would exhaust most without contemplating an hour of action as well.

Television does not do the game justice. Through the screen it seems to be all whistle and referee instructions.

However, courtside the quality of this match overpowered officials' commands about mysterious technical details.

Players' skills and dexterity are magnificent - one backwards leaping intercept from English wing defence Serena Guthrie pure gold - the variety of passing a delight. There's the blazing drive, the floating lob, a bounce pass, sky-hook, a one-hander and all done with explosive impact, feints and deception.

Some of the goal-shooting from the Mystics was a bit ropey but without a backboard and shooting from the circle edge, it's like asking Rory McIlroy to drain every 6m putt in a round.

However, at the same venue next Monday, the shooting has to improve if the Mystics want to beat the next-best in the NZ conference and claim a knockout home semifinal.