Netball: Steel buckle under pressure and kiss goodbye to playoffs

It is time to officially rule a line through the Steel's transtasman league playoff hopes after the southern side were out-muscled and out-thought by the NSW Swifts in Canberra yesterday.

A horror start set the tone for what would be a tough afternoon for the Steel, who were never able to find their rhythm on attack.

Having clearly done their homework on the visitors' attacking patterns, the Swifts defence did a good job of isolating the Steel midcourters, and getting strong hands-over pressure to cut down the quick-release high balls into Jhaniele Fowler-Reid.

Unable to make the most of their key attacking weapon, the Steel slumped to a big loss to the third-placed Swifts, ending their faint hopes of a top-four spot.

After a breakthrough win over the Thunderbirds on their last trip across the Tasman - their first win on Australian soil in 17 attempts - the Steel took a lot of confidence into the match. But a four-day turnaround in between Monday night's win over the Tactix and the special Anzac Day clash appeared to sap some of the Steel's energy.

Captain Jodi Brown admitted there were things her side could have done better to cope with the schedule.

"I think we have to go back and have a look at it, but we can't use it as an excuse. We had known about [the tight turnaround] for a long time, so it was something we had prepared for, but probably not as well as we could have. But you have to give the Swifts a lot of credit - they played extremely well today," she said.

Struggling to even penetrate their attacking third early on, the Steel found themselves 14-2 down mid-way through the opening quarter, with the gap between their second and third goals extending a painful six minutes.

The visitors managed to recover somewhat towards the end of the period, but trailing 20-10 at the first break, they were left with an awful lot to do in the remaining three quarters.

They managed to hang in there for most of the second spell, slowing service into Swifts shooter Caitlin Thwaites, who was in dominant form at the back, shooting 32 from 35 in her three quarters.

But a couple of errors from the Steel late in the spell allowed the NSW side to stretch out their lead to 13 heading into the second half. The Swifts' execution fell away slightly in the third period in the free and fast-flowing match, but the home side continued to dominate on the scoreboard.

Leading 54-36 at the final turn, the Swifts took the opportunity to inject some youth off the bench, with shooter Gretel Tippett and midcourters Brooke Miller and Madeline Hay all getting a run. With the game having already slipped through their grasp, the Steel also turned to their bench to give some of their youngsters the chance to try and prove themselves on the big stage and restore some pride for the team. They responded by winning the final quarter 16-11.

The other big transtasman clashes of the weekend will see the Pulse take on the table-topping Melbourne Vixens in Wellington today, while the Magic will meet the horribly out-of-form Adelaide Thunderbirds in Rotorua tomorrow.