Netball: Fuller shows confidence in her team of rising young stars

Debbie Fuller, coach Northern Mystics. Photo / Claire De Barr

In her first year in charge of the Mystics, Debbie Fuller has achieved what her two predecessors failed to do, leading the Auckland side to the ANZ Championship play-offs.

Now she wants to achieve what no coach in the transtasman league has been able to do by taking a team from fourth at the end the regular season all the way to the title.

"We're happy but we're not satisfied yet. The job is certainly not done and that's the approach we're taking to Brisbane," said Fuller before Sunday's big showdown against the Queensland Firebirds.

Two weeks ago few would have rated the Mystics a chance of getting this far.

They were one of the most talented line-ups in the top four, but also the most erratic and many thought they would fail to cope with the huge step up in intensity of play-offs netball.

But Fuller maintains her side have been building to this point since they first came together as a group last November.

With five members of her side - Temepara George, Joline Henry, Anna Scarlett, Maria Tutaia and the now-injured Grace Rasmussen - involved in the Silver Ferns' gold-medal triumph in Delhi a month before, there was an air of confidence about the team from day one.

"Last November we came together as a squad and I asked the girls why they're here, and they said they wanted to win the competition," said Fuller.

"So we've progressively built an environment around achieving goals week-in, week-out so we can get there.

"The key thing we've pushed is accountability in the team. The thing we wanted from the start is genuine peer pressure in the team so people would be accountable for their performance."

For Fuller there were two turning points in the season, which she believes got her side to where they are now - one game away from an ANZ Championship title.

The first was their one-goal win over the Magic in round four - a brilliant come-from-behind effort.

"That kind of secured the girls' belief that they can get over mental hurdles, because physically they can do it, it's the mental hurdles that we tend to struggle with," said Fuller.

The second was their dominant win over the NSW Swifts in their minor semifinal clash two weeks ago.

The five-goal victory over the talented Swifts line-up was undoubtedly the Mystics' best performance in four years of the competition, and helped to reinforce to the team that if they stick to the gameplan they are unstoppable.

"That set our momentum going forward and the girls totally bought in to the game plan," Fuller said.

That realisation may have come late on in the piece, but Fuller believes this may work in their favour heading into Sunday's clash.

"Timing in sport is everything.

"The Firebirds haven't played us at full strength when our momentum is on a high and our confidence is on a high, so I think they'll be quietly worried."