Defensive Effort Earns Tactix Elimination Final Victory
A storming fourth quarter has propelled the VIP Frames and Trusses Tactix into their third ANZ Premiership Grand Final as they came from behind to beat Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse in the Elimination Final.
The Tactix kept their clean sheet at Wolfbrook Arena in Christchurch for the season with a 57-52 win over the Pulse on Sunday night, sending them into the Grand Final where they will meet the Mystics in Auckland in seven days.
They needed to rally a huge defensive effort in the last super shot period of play as the Pulse, renowned for their accuracy with two-pointers, netted four super shots in an attempt to steal back the lead.
But backed by their home crowd and some key gains from goal defence Karin Burger, the Tactix held their composure to push them through to the Grand Final – a first for new coach Donna Wilkins.
It was a mix of the collective defensive pressure through the court and the growing confidence to let the ball go into Ellie Bird, over the top of the long reach of Kelly Jackson, ignited the Tactix late in the third spell and the momentum carried through to the deciding quarter as the hosts started to take control of the match.
In contrast, the easy ball that had earlier gone into Pulse shooter Amelia Walmsley dried up for the visitors who found themselves facing a nine-goal deficit midway through the last spell.
The Tactix had earlier sprung a surprise in their starting line-up with Burger moving out to the wing and Paris Lokotui taking her spot alongside Jane Watson in the defensive circle. But it was the familiar frontline of Holly Mather, Erikana Pedersen – playing her 100th match for the Tactix – and Te Paea Selby-Rickit at goal attack while Bird got the nod ahead of Martina Salmon at goal shooter.
Missing three of their regular starters, including Parris Mason (injury), Whitney Souness and Fa'amu Ioane on the bench, the Pulse went with the experience of Gabi Simpson at centre, Maddy Gordon on the wing and Ainsleyana Puleiata at wing defence while Laura Balmer again teamed with Kelly Jackson in the defensive circle with Amelia Walmsley and Tiana Metuarau pairing up in the shooting circle.
With their seasons on the line, each side kept their nerves buried scoring from their centre passes and turnovers from either side kept the scoreline even early in the stanza.
Finding the tall timber at either end of the court was aim of both teams – the Tactix moving the ball quickly around the circle while the Pulse looked for the high ball into Walmsley – success coming from the two camps with the scores locked at 5-5.
The Tactix' defensive unit attempted to attack the ball outside of the circle, shutting down options into Walmsley, but the quick release from Tiana Metuarau into her shooter gave the visitors the edge in a frenetic first quarter.
Souness and Ioane were injected into the match, heading into the super shot period, and another gain to the Pulse gave them a 14-10 advantage at the break.
Metuarau attempted her first goal of the game, and landed it, to keep her side ahead on the resumption of play but the Tactix returned to the court with intent, looking to close the four-goal buffer.
The struggles up front however returned to the Tactix play, with no easy entry into the shooting circle and an intercept from Jackson gave the visitors a six-goal lead midway through the second quarter.
Gordon dictated the tempo up front for the Pulse, hitting the circle edge and firing ball into Walmsley prompting a time-out from the Tactix to switch the defensive line with Burger moving to goal defence and Lokotui to the wing.
Five goals remained the difference heading into the second super shot period as the Pulse brought two-point specialist Amorangi Malesala into the match, but it was the Tactix who netted the first long bomb of the game with Selby-Rickit helping to close the gap to 26-30 on the buzzer for halftime.
Four quick goals to the Pulse at the start of the second half changed momentum and every goal the hosts were able to net was hard earned as the intensity increased.
The midcourt defensive efforts from the Tactix brought them back into the match with two turnovers allowing the hosts to cut the deficit to just two, warming up the red-and-black fans in the stands.
Patience with ball in hand was needed and the deflections started to mount for the Tactix as they levelled the scores with two minutes left in the spell, going into the turn with a 41-40 lead.
The ANZ Premiership Grand Final between the defending champion Mystics and Tactix will be played at The Trusts Arena in Auckland on 27 July, starting at 4pm.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Netball TV deal reportedly comes at huge cost for NNZ
By Ross McNaughton of RNZ Domestic netball may be returning to free-to-air television, but it has come at a huge cost to Netball New Zealand. It is understood Netball New Zealand is paying TVNZ hundreds of thousands of dollars for championship games to be shown on the state broadcaster next year Netball New Zealand CEO Jennie Wyllie would not confirm or deny the arrangement, which is believed to be costing between $600,000 and $700,000. "I do not know what that figure is relating to, but we certainly aren't going to discuss any commercial arrangements we have in place." Netball New Zealand admitted to investing in production costs, despite the deal for next year's Silver Ferns games still under negotiation, and nothing in place for 2027. "Whilst it might set a precedent it gives us a lot of control over the product and how we give exposure to our partners within the broadcast product," Wyllie said. It was hoped sponsorship revenue would be boosted by the increased visibility of being on free-to-air television. The players' collective employment agreement was still being finalised, and New Zealand Netball Players Association executive manager Steph Bond could not confirm whether wages would drop, but said the agreement would "look different." "That's probably all really that we can say right now." Wyllie was resigned to the fact netball could no longer rely on big money offers from TV networks to fill the coffers. "The whole broadcast and media landscape has changed. It's not what it was the last time around when everyone locked in their deals." That had led to them looking elsewhere, including to the government. "Increasingly, this is a space where New Zealand On Air needs to consider that production of New Zealand made content and the storytelling that you see in a sports game is no different to a Shortland Street, is no different to some of the diverse projects that are funded under New Zealand On Air, so I think that landscape will and should change." While it could not be done this year due to the Commonwealth Games, Bond said Players Association wanted to see the ANZ Premiership shifted so it did not clash with the Australian domestic competition. "We have put on the table for the last year or so that moving the competition would obviously allow players to play across the ditch, but also in this competition, which is only going to be great for the sport and great for players, because in the shortened time they have to make a living from the sport they have more ability to do that by playing in more competitions." But the market remained difficult for women's sport "We're not a rugby and a cricket with a men's game cross subsidising us, we don't have an India and we don't have FIFA, we don't have a World Rugby so this is just us trying to work through it for ourselves," Wyllie said. TVNZ declined to comment, citing commercial sensitivity.
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
ANZ Premiership on TVNZ
The ANZ Premiership competition will air exclusively on TVNZ in 2026. This season all games were shown on Sky. The Saturday afternoon games were also broadcast on TVNZ 2 and TVNZ+ which will feature all next year's games. The 2026 premiership will follow this season's two-round format meaning it will consist of 30 round-robin matches and two finals over 12 weeks. — APL
RNZ News
5 days ago
- RNZ News
The battle to get netball on TV: How did it come to this?
The Tactix celebrate winning the 2025 ANZ Premiership. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/ Analysis - How has New Zealand's top netball competition gone from attracting millions in broadcast rights, to having to fork out some of its own money to get it on TV? Just six years ago the Silver Ferns were on top of the world after beating Australia in the final to win the 2019 Netball World Cup. Fast-forward, and the national body finally secured a broadcast deal this week for next year's ANZ Premiership, following months of drawn-out negotiations. Sky Sport had been the major broadcast partner since 2008, but the national body is going back to TVNZ - marking the return of the sport on free-to-air television. RNZ understands that Sky TVs offer was so much lower than any of its previous deals, that Netball New Zealand didn't actually have too much to lose in rolling the dice. The new broadcast deal does not include rights for Silver Ferns matches - Netball New Zealand is still looking for a home for Test netball from 2026. How much TVNZ are actually paying for the rights, if any, won't be disclosed but it seems inevitable that players will face pay cuts. Netball NZ is taking a calculated risk that a bigger TV audience will draw more commercial revenue to make up for a massive shortfall in broadcast revenue. The one-year agreement also buys Netball New Zealand some time if it wants to explore joining the Australian league from 2027 in some capacity. It feels like netball is back where it was in 2007 before the dawn of the semi-professional trans-Tasman competition, which promised so much. But at least then the country's best players were still playing in New Zealand. Next year, nearly half the Silver Ferns could be playing in Australia. Netball World Cup 2019 winners. Photo: © (t/a Photography Hub Ltd) Netball New Zealand's stocks were high following the Silver Ferns' victory at the 2019 World Cup. When Spark emerged as a player in the sports broadcast market in 2019, Sky quickly locked down the netball rights until the end of 2024, despite having two years to run on the existing deal. In 2023 Spark Sport came to an end and Sky has had no real competition since. Tougher economic times means a lot of sports are now looking over their shoulder. Talks over a new broadcast deal between New Zealand Rugby and Sky have dragged on for months. Sky Television's profits have taken a hit , and they are tightening their belts. Sky Sport's 2025 ANZ Premiership broadcast looked a little different to previous years. The weekly Netball Zone programme was dropped, one on-site host fronted regular season games instead of two, and remote commentary was used for four of the matches. White Fern Amelia Kerr is now one of the most recognised sports personalities in NZ. Photo: Photosport Recent years have seen a surge in the popularity of women's sport globally and it's not really netball's fault that this has happened - it was always going to. As traditionally male dominated sports have invested more in their women's programmes, it's helped increase the profile of codes like of women's cricket and rugby. Netball used to be essential in Sky Sports' line-up because it was the only female sport it would broadcast on a regular basis. Women's rugby gets far more coverage on Sky than it used to, including Super Rugby Aupiki, the Farah Palmer Cup, the Black Ferns, and sevens. The same goes for women's cricket and next year will see the return to Sky of the White Ferns playing domestically. Sky also broadcasts the New Zealand women's basketball league, rugby league's NRLW, and football's A-League women's competition. And if Sky want the rights to All Blacks and Black Caps matches, New Zealand Rugby and New Zealand Cricket can leverage that to get better coverage for their women. Sky TV's Anna Stanley and Anna Harrison. Photo: PHOTOSPORT When Australian Diamonds sides used to tour New Zealand, they would be jealous of the level of media coverage the Silver Ferns got. But former Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander told RNZ earlier this year that she had noticed a shift. "There was so much more coverage in New Zealand [back then] and I think you've taken it for granted to be quite honest because it's really hard to get it back," Alexander said. "In Australia we are fighting very very hard to have our slice of the media pie and it's still very tough …but I'm now a columnist, I write about netball - I wouldn't have dreamed of that 10 years ago." It probably took Netball NZ too long to recognise that with more female sports vying for eyeballs, it had to actively generate more intrigue in its showpiece competition. A concerted effort to attract top-tier quality import players to the ANZ Premiership from the start would have helped it compete with the Australian league. But a one import player per team limit and a lack of ambition in targeting a pool of top talent, meant that ship sailed a long time ago. NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark and players at the launch of the ground-breaking ANZ Championship, March 2008. Photo: James Ensing-Trussell Oh how the tables have turned. Between 2008 and 2016, revenue generated from New Zealand propped up the former trans-Tasman ANZ Championship. Broadcast revenue from Sky was divvied up equally among the franchises on both sides of the Tasman to cover the salary cap. But after banking more than $10 million from Sky for eight years, eventually Australia didn't need New Zealand anymore. Netball Australia finally started carrying some clout with their broadcasters and secured a paid broadcast deal for the first time. Australia's Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) competition struggles to break even, but crowds and viewership have been growing and the SSN pays the highest salaries of any league. England Netball launched a new-look Netball Super League (NSL) this year, marking a significant step towards professionalism. For the first time all games were available to watch, and the average salary increased by at least 60 percent. New Zealand was a couple of decades ahead of the curve when TVNZ started broadcasting netball regularly from the 1980's. It's only been in the last few years that other countries finally figured out that broadcasting women's sport is actually pretty cool. Any novelty factor has long gone in New Zealand, but England Netball and Netball Australia are riding that wave of momentum - and they operate in bigger economies. Kelly Jackson Photo: PHOTOSPORT It would be easy to conclude that the quality of the ANZ Premiership must be declining, that less people are playing netball, and viewership is dwindling - but that's not the case. Netball NZ said this year's domestic competition saw record-breaking crowds. Its 2024 annual report described last year's ANZ Premiership as the most popular season yet and that viewership was up over 1.7 million viewers - "another large increase year-on-year for the competition." It reported a 50 percent increase in ANZ Premiership viewership and over 35 percent increase in Constellation Cup audience in New Zealand. Silver Fern defender Kelly Jackson said the country's top netballers were still among the best in the world. "I think the hardest part of all to accept in these troubling times is that the product we are putting out on court is still to a really high standard and that's not being reflected in what's going on," Jackson said. The Silver Ferns beat Australia 3-1 in the Constellation Cup last year, suggesting the ANZ Premiership can't be too bad. Players' Association boss Steph Bond said participation rates were still miles ahead of other female sports. "The community game is still growing … there is definitely the fans and the people that are supporting the game just at this point in time we don't seem to be able to be getting that turned into dollars and making that a difference at that level," Bond said. The National Bank Cup final in Invercargill, 2005. The Southern Sting had a huge fanbase. Photo: Richard Jones Netball New Zealand's move to free-to-air might see some short-term pain for long-term gain. No longer will people miss out on watching the domestic competition because they can't afford a Sky subscription. In the 1980s, 90s, and 2000s most budding young netballers would have been able to name every member of the Silver Ferns and that helped netball hold its own against male codes. In 2024, Netball NZ trialled free-to-air coverage of the ANZ Premiership, and this year Saturday games were screened exclusively on TVNZ. If fans are the bedrock of professional sport then opening up the sport to more of them could ultimately pay off for Netball New Zealand. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
