Outpaced, outpassed and run ragged on the netball court

Otago Daily Times

14-05-2025

Sports reporter Sam Coughlan has been beaten up in the boxing ring, thumped on the rugby league and union fields, and had his ego bruised at football training. This week he reports on training with the Technical A netball team.
I had no idea what to expect heading into training with a netball team.
Like most of the other sports I've tried in this series, I have zero experience – apart from watching the odd game on TV and a handful of PE classes in high school.
It seemed simple enough – just catch, pass and run. Right?
That's what I thought, despite netball-playing friends warning me it was far harder than it looked.
As it turned out, the Technical A netball team, runners-up in last year's Premier 1 competition, were at a much higher level than my year 10 PE class.
During three-on-three drills, my shortcomings were quickly exposed.
On defence I twisted and turned, hopelessly trying to keep up as the ball was passed in rings around me.
On attack, I struggled to find any options beyond making a simple short pass.
We started with a warm-up – quick footwork, stretches, and sprints. Then we got into the actual netball side of things, with a few passes between two people to get the hands going.
'Not bad,' I thought. At least catching and passing a ball isn't beyond me.
Things got tricky when we moved into a three-person drill with two players darting into various positions to receive the ball and return it to the passer.
Passing and catching on their own is okay and I can run, but putting all the skills together is another thing entirely.
I'm slow to react and get in position and needed more than a few pointers from my teammates just to be in the right place.
After running me ragged in the three-on-three game, Technical moves to working on patterns of play from the centre pass – looking for options forward or wide from the centre circle.
I find myself playing wing defence, receiving the ball from centre Riley Small and trying to distribute it forward while also presenting myself as an option to pass back to when needed.
With no-one marking me, I feel like I handle the role well, although certainly not to the standard of the players doing this week-in-week-out.
Technical co-coach Charlotte Drummond had told the team 'Sam Coughlan from The Star' was tagging along to training - which they thought meant I was affiliated with ANZ Premiership side Northern Stars.
Sadly, I had to disappoint them with the knowledge I was from the newspaper, and had barely played the sport in my life.
Still, I'd like to think my imaginary pro netball alter ego would be feeling proud.
Sure, I got outpaced, outplayed, and outpassed by everyone on court – but I did, technically, play netball.