Netball: Selection anxiety runs high

Veteran Jodi Brown (centre) is one of six shooters fighting for four spots. Photo / Dean Purcell

Veteran Silver Ferns shooter Jodi Brown can't remember when there has been more tension and uncertainty ahead of a team selection, as several long-serving members face missing out on next month's World Cup.

Coach Waimarama Taumaunu will today name her side for the Netball World Cup in Sydney, ending weeks of speculation over the 12 for the tournament. Given the Ferns' poor run of results against key rivals Australia over the past two years and the recent emergence of some young stars, there were a lot more contestable positions coming into this week's trials than anyone would have banked on 12 months ago.

Brown, one of six shooters fighting for just four spots in today's team, said there has been a noticeable lift in anxiety in the camp ahead of the selection with few in the squad able to consider their place secure.

"This is probably the most tense I've been at a team selection. Probably in the last four or five years, you've been able to rock up to trials and go 'well A, B and C is in the team and you're kind of fighting it out with another person for one position', but this has been the most intense trial period," said Brown, one of just two players (Leana de Bruin being the other) in the group of 30 trialling this week to have tasted World Cup victory.

"There's not really any players, bar a couple, that are safe - we're all pretty much sitting on edge at the moment."

Liana Leota, Brown's teammate at the Central Pulse, has tried to take a more philosophical approach to this week's trials. The diminutive midcourter has spent most of the year living on the other side of the world to her UK-based husband Johnny and their three children as she chased her World Cup dream. But after a quiet season with the Pulse, there is a chance Leota may have played her last test for New Zealand, with the wing attack facing stiff competition to retain her midcourt spot.

"I'm just trying to have fun and play well and not focus too much on the outcome," she said.

"I know that the 12 who make it will put their best foot forward for our sport and our country."

Taumaunu said nerves and anxiety have had a telling impact on performances at trials this week, with several players clearly affected by the pressure.

Along with the "six into four" equation in the shooting circle, seven midcourters are fighting for potentially only three spots, depending on whether the selectors opt to overload the defensive end.

With captain Casey Kopua needing to be carefully managed as she returns from a serious knee injury, there is a strong chance Taumaunu will name an extra circle defender - tipped to be Phoenix Karaka - to take pressure off the skipper.

That would put the squeeze on further up the court, with only Laura Langman and Grace Rasmussen considered safe in the midcourt. Kayla Cullen and Joline Henry are battling for one "defensive midcourt" spot, while Leota, Camilla Lees, Shannon Francois and Sam Sinclair are chasing the other remaining position.

Regardless of the positional split the selectors choose, there will be a lot of disappointed players today.

Possible Silver Ferns team
Casey Kopua, Leana de Bruin, Katrina Grant, Phoenix Karaka, Kayla Cullen, Laura Langman, Grace Rasmussen, Shannon Francois, Maria Tutaia, Jodi Brown, Bailey Mes, Malia Paseka.