KEY POINTS:
Here are the bald facts.
The Central Pulse have yet to register a win in the ANZ Championship; they have yet to finish within 17 goals of an Australian team; their last three margins of defeat following a spirited but ultimately misleading two-goal loss to the Steel have been 28, 29 and 17 goals. For every 100 goals the opposition score on them, the Pulse manage a mere 66 in return.
Fair enough, you might say. In sport there are winners and losers. The Pulse happen to be on the wrong side of the ledger this year.
But you would hope the thinking at Netball New Zealand would be somewhat different. There was never a better opportunity for NNZ to achieve relative parity among their franchises than in the first year of a new competition. Of course, the better-coached teams and ones that have the best luck with injuries will eventually stick their heads above the rest but the franchises surely should have least been given a relatively even playing field to start from.
This franchise was going to need intervention if it was going to have any chance of succeeding.
However, one look at the squad lists at the start of the year and you could come to only one conclusion: the Pulse were going to prop up the competition. In fact, there is a very real possibility they might go through the season unrewarded.
Yesterday, they lost a tight contest, after extra time, 55-50 to the Canterbury Tactix but it has been against Australian teams they have struggled the most. "It's something we are thinking about constantly," said NNZ chief executive Raelene Castle. "In terms of the new competition we wanted to ensure we had 10 competitive teams."
Castle concedes they had to adjust their thinking a little when it came to the Pulse.
"The Pulse have picked a team with a three-year plan in mind," she said. "We recognised in year one they would not be titleholders."
Instead Castle is hoping the experienced coaching duo of Kate Carpenter and Jill McIntosh will improve the assorted up-and-comers "very quickly".
The issue of recruitment is not as clear cut as NNZ insisting players play for the Pulse.
"The franchises are completely stand alone and make their own personnel decisions," Castle said. "But I think we have a close enough relationship with the franchises and our representative players to ensure that everyone's best interests are catered for." Which is surely a none-too-subtle way of saying that Silver Ferns players might be "encouraged" to look at Wellington as an option further down the track, should the Pulse's struggles continue.
There is a feeling within the camp that if they can correct their first-quarter woes, they will be competitive against most teams. However, you could argue just as convincingly that teams appear to have taken the foot off the pedal after establishing big leads against them. In other words, it's not as if they are any better after falling behind, just that teams start playing down to their level.
Nobody should feel surprised by the franchise's struggles. Of the two teams that formed the basis of the Pulse, the Capital Shakers never rose to any heights and the Western Flyers were a team foreign to success.
The problem is that failure can become endemic and is far harder to break out of than success is. Even the most promising of players can be beaten down by the effects of continued defeat.
"That's a concern, of course," Castle says. "We have to manage that really carefully."
Take, for example, this scenario. If you are an ambitious young player coming out of the region, are you going to want to play on a team that could, in effect, harm your chances of selection to the national team, or are you going to have a look at opportunities elsewhere? After all, doesn't a certain six-foot-plenty goal shoot of some repute live in Wellington and play for the Magic?
Castle says there are players on the Pulse that had the opportunity to play elsewhere this season but chose to play minutes and get experience against the best players in the world rather than sit on a bench somewhere else.
It's that attitude, allied to good coaching, that makes her confident the Pulse will be competitive. For the good of the sport in the region, and for the good of the competition, that has to be sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, in yesterday's game, the southerners prevailed 55-50 following two seven-minute periods of extra time after the scores were locked at 43-43 at the end of regulation time. They played above themselves for much of the game but ultimately bowed to Canterbury's extra experience, veteran centre Julie Seymour an influential figure for the winners.
The Pulse led 37-33 with about 10 minutes remaining in the final quarter before Seymour helped guide the Tactix back into the game as they scored four successive goals. But again the Pulse threatened, leading 41-39 with less than 3min on the clock only to end the quarter at 43-43 when new English import Rachel Dunn converted with 1s remaining after she was obstructed under the basket.
The England international ended the match with 37 goals from 43 attempts while her attacking partner Anna Thompson shot 18 from 26.
Arguably Dunn's most crucial goal came midway through the last extra period when she pulled off an offensive rebound then nailed the goal to give her team a decisive 51-49 advantage. "They pushed us really hard and I know they will be disappointed," Seymour told Sky Sport. "They are a good side and can give anyone a run for their money."
Seymour said her team were still adjusting to the introduction of Dunn while the Englishwoman was likewise taking time to find her feet.
