Four seasons, 62 matches and a title under their belt, but the Central Pulse claim they're yet to play their "perfect game".
Often sitting comfortably at the top of the ANZ Premiership ladder, the Central Pulse have for a long time been the ones to beat in New Zealand's national netball competition.
And with a loyal roster featuring some of the league's top players such as Katrina Rore, Karin Burger, Aliyah Dunn, and Ameliaranne Ekenasio, it's not hard to figure out why.
In 2019, they completed a near-perfect season with 13 wins from 15 games, before lifting the trophy after winning the grand final over the Northern Stars.
The club then broke it's highest-ever win-streak this season to secure themselves a spot in their fourth consecutive grand final with three games to spare.
However, Burger said the side is yet to meet the standard set out by head coach Yvette McCausland-Durie.
"We've been working on that for the last four years, to be honest," Burger said. "We've had those goals throughout the four years that we've been working together and we still haven't had our perfect game."
Pulse defender Karin Burger. Photo / Photosport
Burger revealed McCausland-Durie and the team had set out a number of targets in 2017, with the aim of simultaneously reaching them all in a game.
"It includes high percentages in our center pass to circle, center pass to score, turn over to circle, turn over to score, just our efficiencies really and then obviously our goal percentages," Burger said.
"Most of those are in the 80 percent and above so we do hit the odd one here or there but we've not had a game where we've reached all of them in our green - we call it the green zone - so all of them above those percentages.
"We had a discussion about whether the targets were unrealistic but that's what pushes us to be that top-performing team and pushes us to reach that perfect game so it's very good that we have those. It forces us to look at ourselves critically, regardless of what the outcome of the game is, and look at things that we need to improve on."
The Pulse is preparing to face the Mainland Tactix in the ANZ Premiership grand final next weekend - depending on Covid-19 developments.
Pulse head coach Yvette Mccausland-Durie. Photo / Photosport
Having suffered their second loss of the season to the Tactix in Wellington earlier this week, the Pulse no longer holds an 'unbeatable' status in their opponent's eyes.
Burger said she doesn't expect their approach to change, however, as they eye a back-to-back title, and hopefully, a perfect game.
"We know what we do well and we just want to stick to each individual player's strength and combine that in the unit," she said.
"It's just about looking at ourselves, what we do well, what our strengths are, and committing to that and making sure that we do that well."
The Pulse are set to play the Tactix in Invercargill next Sunday. Netball New Zealand are expected to give an update on the finals series' proceedings later today.
Silver Ferns goal shoot Grace Nweke speaks about the Constellation Cup series and the rivalry against the Diamonds in the final match. Video / Alyse Wright
