Netball: Mid-season slump leaves Mystics' dreams hanging by a thread

Mystics coach Debbie Fuller. Photo / APN

After a promising start to the season, the Northern Mystics' playoff hopes are once again teetering on the brink following another sloppy performance against the Queensland Firebirds at the weekend.

The Mystics find themselves in familiar territory at the halfway point. As in the past three seasons, they need to win their six remaining games to guarantee a first playoffs spot.

Nine wins have historically proven enough to make it beyond the regular season, meaning the Mystics could still get there if they drop one of the games.

But with two trips across the Tasman (Fever in round nine; Swifts in round 10) scheduled over the next few weeks, they have some huge physical and mental barriers to overcome if they are to scrape in to the semifinals.

Mystics coach Debbie Fuller admitted her side had a daunting task in front of them, but was confident they had the experience and talent to pull it off.

"I think we can still get over the line, we can still make the playoffs, but we can't overlook what is directly in front of us and the work we need to do. There is a lot we need to improve on," she said.

"The good thing is this group does want to improve, we've got some real perfectionists in our group and they are not happy with the way things have gone."

Unlike seasons past, when their form has been fickle from the outset, the Mystics had built up some strong momentum after beating competition heavyweights Melbourne Vixens and Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic in consecutive weeks.

But that momentum has disintegrated over the past two weeks after a disappointing loss to the Adelaide Thunderbirds and a dreadful performance against the Firebirds. Their mid-season form slump has coincided with Fuller's absence from the team.

While the Mystics coach was courtside over the weekend, she has missed training in the last two weeks after the birth of her third child.

But Fuller insisted her absence had not been a distraction for the side.

"[Assistant coach] Jenny-May [Coffin] is a total professional in anything she does, and we have had Lyn Gunson come in to the camp so the girls have had a couple of points of reference to go to while I have been away. And we've tried to keep things as consistent as possible for them."

It was always going to be a tough ask for the Mystics to knock over table-topping Queensland, but the nature of the loss - and the fact that many of their star players failed to perform - will be of major concern to the coaching staff.

Veteran midcourter Temepara George will be disappointed with her error rate, Fern-in-waiting Cathrine Latu may have shot 19/19, but her general court play was far from perfect as she was well contained by Australian defender Laura Geitz, while defender Anna Scarlett was extremely expensive, copping more than 30 penalties as she tried in vain to stem the flow of ball in to 1.96m Jamaican shooter Romelda Aiken.

As immovable and emotionless as a crane on a building site, the Firebirds' star import stood and delivered for the visiting side.

Mystics' Joline Henry, who on Saturday had her first taste of netball in five weeks after a long layoff with an ankle injury, said the work needed to be done outside the circle to limit Aiken's influence on the match.

"We're really disappointed that we couldn't do more work outside of the circle to turn over ball. It's just too bigan ask for our inside defenders to contest in the air with someone that big. So we needed to put more pressure on out in front."

Despite being comprehensively outplayed by the Firebirds, Fuller still believes if the two sides were to meet again in the play-offs, a win would be "achievable".