Netball: Shaky swifts stay positive

SYDNEY: NSW Swifts captain Catherine Cox says her team aren't panicking as they try to get their shaky transtasman netball title defence back on track.

The Swifts are the bottom-placed Australian team in sixth position with a 2-3 record after blowing a seven-goal lead with six minutes to go and losing by one goal in extra time to the young, fast-improving West Coast Fever on Monday.

"I think everyone just stopped, we were up and we just stopped pushing forward ... we had a comfortable enough lead and people stopped running, people stopped driving for the ball," said Cox.

After the match coach Julie Fitzgerald said her team appeared affected by their recent losses when the pressure came on.

"Confidence is a funny thing and had it been there, we wouldn't have allowed them back into the game," she said.

The Swifts had a similarly rocky start last year and, while the circumstances are different, it's cause for comfort.

"Last year we just weren't expected to win," said Cox.

"I think this year ... people are expecting us to win and whether or not that is why we stop as well - a fear of losing - I don't really know.

"We are certainly not panicking, this time last year we had had three losses as well and then we went on to be undefeated for the rest of the season."

The only major change to the team from last year was the retirement of national team wing defence Selina Gilsenan, known as The Rash for her ability to stick to opponents.

"I think we struggled to get the ball out of defence [against the Fever] and that was an area Selina did control, it is amazing to me that a wing defence, of all defensive positions, can make that much of a difference," Cox said.

All three of the Swifts' losses have been to leading teams - the Adelaide Thunderbirds, Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic and Fever - away from home, but Cox did not think the home court advantage should be an issue.

"Last year we had no issues winning away; the team, minus one player, is exactly the same as it was last year so I don't see that as being a reason.

"Again though, that is something that we look at in the way we have been preparing and see if there is something we are not doing away that we have been doing at home."

The Swifts now face home games against the Thunderbirds tomorrow and the Queensland Firebirds on May 18.

Cox said the focus would be keeping up their attack.

"I think the defence team was better than it had been in the first four games and the attacking was probably the worst it had been ... so it's just a matter of getting them both firing at the same time."

- AAP