Netball: The madness of the Magic

Irene van Dyk, right, has had a mixed season with the Magic. Here she protests against the close attention of Althea Byfield of the Mystics. Photo / Getty Images

As another Magic campaign unravels, the side's management are facing mounting criticism.

Clinging to fourth place on the ladder on the back of three straight losses, the talent-stacked Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic are now in danger of missing out on the finals altogether.

There is bewilderment about how New Zealand's glamour side, led by three of the best performing Silver Ferns in recent seasons, can slip up so badly at the business end of the season. Most of the frustration stems from the sense of deja vu about it all.

The franchise do not appear to have learnt - the same concerns that have emerged from previous seasons have once again reared their head.

Yet, call it naive or arrogance, the Magic management insist they have the formula right, pointing out they are New Zealand's most successful franchise, having made the play-offs for the past two seasons.

But with all the talent in the squad, they should have done much better.

Coach Noeline Taurua is known as an innovator and is not afraid to take risks. At times this season, this has also been her downfall. The easy-going and likeable Taurua has a great rapport with all her players.

Publicly they will all back her to the hilt. But privately it appears many of them are now beginning to question some of her coaching decisions.

You must bee kidding

The signs were there from the beginning of the season when Taurua turned up to a pre-season training dressed as a busy bee.

The apparent thinking behind it was "to let the team know they needed to become like bees getting on with their roles in the team and working hard".

When Jose Mourinho sits down to his breakfast and thinks "hmm what can I do to inspire the troops this week?", turning up to training in fancy dress will be far down the list.

But we get it: Taurua is a little kooky - she's always going to do things differently. The problem was the bee routine took the place of other more traditional forms of preparation such as, um, getting some decent match-play by attending pre-season tournaments.

Instead of playing dress-ups they needed to bee busy playing games.

And who knows, those antennae might have come in handy for scouting their rival teams and assessing where they were at.

Training schedule

One of the most contentious areas of the Magic programme over the first three seasons has been their training schedule. The full squad gets together just once a week, which is a mind-boggling approach for a professional side.

The issue was once again brought up on radio this week, with former Firebirds coach Vicki Wilson suggesting the Magic's low-key preparation was the reason behind their annual late-season dive.

Taurua has been at pains to clarify her side's training schedule is more rigorous than the rumours suggest. The team go on with their individual training programmes during the week, and they also go through further run-throughs once they have assembled in camp.

But to build a strong, united team environment, you have the players turning up in the gym every day doing the hard yards alongside their teammates.

It is not only the quantity of training that appears to be the issue, but also the quality.

One team insider said the players themselves are questioning the intensity of their training.

"The [Magic] girls know a lot of the work they should be doing at training, they're not. [It's] their attacking through court that's letting them down, they look like they haven't been playing together very long and I know that in their training they don't do a lot of basic attacking drills."

Flying players in

The Magic's main rationale for their limited team training is that they cover a large region, and they also have to fly in players from other areas of the country, so they simply can't get together more than once a week.

Why then do the Magic persist with selecting players from outside the region if they are not willing to relocate?

Netball New Zealand tried to discourage the practice last year, but their pleas fell on deaf ears in the Magic camp. Each season they have increased the number of players who commute.

Irene van Dyk and Frances Solia both reside in Wellington, while Jodi Brown travels all the way up from Dunedin.

Even the Steel who, in their former incarnation of the Sting back in the old domestic league, first introduced the practice of flying in players from around the country now insist all their players be based in Invercargill.

You can understand the Magic not being willing to force the issue with their star shooter van Dyk, but are the other two so valuable to their team that they should be able to demand such ridiculous terms?

Selection decisions

There is no doubt losing Australian import Peta Scholz to injury was a huge blow. Over the first three years of the ANZ Championship there have been numerous examples of just how much difference one player can make to a team's fortunes.

But the way Magic managed the loss of Scholz has everyone scratching their head.

Instead of searching for an immediate replacement the Magic first looked to fill the void in-house by re-jigging the entire defensive line, which only heightened the disruption.

With Jodi Tod pushed out in to the midcourt, Taurua attempted to create more defensive options in her squad by converting shooter Jess Tuki into a defender.

And what was Taurua's justification for this crazy experimentation? "That's what I do, it's the Magic way, it's my way."

Even kookier is the checklist she applies to assessing whether a new combination is ready to take the court. She said she weighs up "whether the individual player is emotionally and mentally stable in their new role and whether the players around that person are stable as well".

All this experimentation proved a very costly waste of time with the Magic eventually deciding to call in English midcourter Jade Clarke at the eleventh hour.

Franchise management should have been on the phone to the English international the minute Peta Scholz went down.