KEY POINTS:
Noeline Taurua is renowned for always changing netball's script - such as dragging her Magic side to training at dawn on the morning of their do-or-die semifinal with the Diamonds yesterday.
And yet again Taurua's out-of-the-ordinary approach worked, as the sharper Magic cut the Diamonds out of National Bank Cup contention and took the defending champions one step closer to the grand final.
The last chapter in the history of the Diamonds was an anticlimax: "This certainly wasn't the script we had written for ourselves," Diamonds centre Jenny-May Coffin said after the drubbing.
The Aucklanders will go down as a franchise always packed with stars but lacking cohesion as a team; never finishing better than fourth.
Although dejected, Coffin predicted an "exciting time for netball" in the next fortnight, as the two teams who have dominated the national league for the past eight years - the Magic and the Sting - grapple for a final spot against Yvonne Willering's Force.
The Magic, rolling on from their early morning workout, gave their best performance of the season, but the game was fraught with turnovers.
And yet, Taurua wasn't fazed."I don't care about errors, honestly. As long as it has purpose; that next time you do it, it finds its target.
"When we were methodical it was beautiful - no pressure on the ball at all, just beautiful. I can be tough on them, but I have to be realistic. There were more glimpses of brilliance out there than there have been this year."
To beat the Sting in Invercargill this Friday, Taurua will instruct her team to be less reactionary to umpire calls, and to "let the ball go as soon as a space opens up".
The spark that got the Diamonds this far was not as bright yesterday, and in the final stages of the match they were only making up numbers on the court. Coach Sue Hawkins made nine changes in her on-court seven during the match, always striving to break the Magic's hold.
Her decision to start with Maria Tutaia at goal attack, and the smaller Grace Rasmussen at goal shoot, was questionable - both hesitant under the post to start - but the Diamonds managed to stay within a point of the Magic at the end of the first quarter.
But the second quarter was their undoing, as the Magic's defence - Casey Williams, Joline Henry and Nicola Cooney - bound together and blocked the flow of ball to the Diamonds' circle.
The game then took on a familiar rhythm - at the start of every break, the Magic would surge out to a 10-goal lead, before the Diamonds reeled it in to five or six before the end of the spell. Their halftime lead, 24-19, quickly stretched to 29-20 even after Hawkins brought on Silver Fern Paula Griffin.
But Tutaia was essentially doing it herself, once again shooting sweetly from all angles and distances. But her 31 from 36 attempts was not enough to keep the Diamonds alive.
Coffin said: "It's just too hard playing catch-up netball - the surges killed us."
Centre Laura Langman was the marshall of the Magic's assault. There was no love lost between Silver Ferns teammates Irene van Dyk and Anna Scarlett, who banged elbows and knees in their goal circle skirmish, but this time van Dyk clearly came out on top - her 40 goals from 42 shots reinforcing her position as the country's No 1 shooter.
