Yvonne Willering: Adjust to the umpires and stay consistent

Opinion

The ANZ championships, which are about to begin, present a different hype and excitement from the inaugural year in 2008.

Teams go into the competition with equal opportunity as preparation time for each has been of similar duration.

Last season saw the New Zealand-based franchise teams having limited build-up time, with some teams facing selection difficulties and injury concerns close to the start of the competition and pre-season training wasn't able to begin until the middle of January.

For this competition, pre-season training began around October or November.

Several teams have opted for training during the day rather than the customary evening training sessions.

With the traffic problems in the greater Auckland area at peak hours, Northern Mystics is one team that has chosen day training sessions.

Other teams, such as Magic, that has players living outside the region, bring the team together for a more condensed training session at weekends, with the focus on individual and subgroup work throughout the week.

Whatever training regime has been adopted, teams over this side of the Tasman will be far better prepared, both physically and mentally.

Having spoken to a number of players and coaches, they are all eager to start the competition, indicating that pre-season fitness work and court craft are on track, with players wanting to see results for all the hours spent in the preparatory phase.

Teams will also have a more established team culture, with a genuine sense of belonging and purpose. Last year some teams required an amalgamation of players who, the previous season, had been rivals.

For instance, in the Auckland region, games between Auckland and North Harbour had always been dubbed the "Battle of the Bridge".

Similarly the battle between Otago and Southland was very competitive. Thus there was the need to create a more collective culture, not only within the teams, but with supporters and administrators.

Teams need to be accepted as being part of regions, irrespective of where players live or play in other netball fixtures.

I often hear teams, supporters and the media talk about the home advantage. Just what is meant by that? Is it that the team is in familiar surroundings, a friendly environment, having the support of most of the public?

For away fixtures, teams choose to travel either the day before the game, or two days before the event when crossing the ditch, so at least spending one night together before the game.

However, for home games, some teams don't get together until a few hours before the start of a game, preferring to stay home and sleep in their own beds the night before.

Some players see this as the main advantage to a home fixture. Interesting, as I believe that it would be beneficial to have the same regime irrespective of where the game is played, to develop consistency and routines in pre-match preparations.

The question has also been raised why New Zealand teams never have any success when crossing the Tasman. Reasons given include not travelling well, inconsistency in performance, and/or feeling as the under-achievers.

One fact that does need to be taken into consideration is the umpiring. I'm not about to blame umpires for the losses, but the differences in rule interpretation between New Zealand and Australian umpires and the players' reaction to them, should not be overlooked.

While players from Australia may react when penalised, generally they will get straight back into the game, whereas some of our players dwell on the matter and hope the umpire will change their call. As coaches, we don't want that to happen because what we expect from umpires is consistency with their whistle blowing.

While notice is often taken of the shooting statistics of teams, it is also interesting to consider the penalty count of each team and the comparisons in that statistic between the games played here and those played on Australian soil.

Just as playing styles differ between Australia and New Zealand, so do umpiring interpretations. It is up to players to make the necessary adjustments to their game.

So who will win the competition? Pre-season results are meaningless as I doubt that any coach would have exposed any game plans, let alone set combinations.

With tough competition each week it is going to be about consistency in performance, reducing unforced errors, remaining injury free and seizing opportunities. It is easy to get caught up in the hype of the first few games. However, the standings on the competition ladder can change quite abruptly, as seen in other sports.

I will leave my thoughts shelved until about round four of the competition before predicting the likely top four contenders.