With the intensity set to build, six teams have emerged unbeaten from the opening day’s play at the NetballSmart Netball NZ Open Champs at Pulman Arena in Auckland on Tuesday.
Hosted by the Papakura Netball Centre, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Counties Manukau, Tauranga and North Harbour quickly found their feet to record first-up wins in getting their campaigns off to the best possible start.
Vying for the New Zealand Cup, netball’s oldest trophy, the 17 teams are, in the first instance, chasing top two finishes across the four pools, which will be determined on Thursday morning, those eight teams then being in contention for this year’s title. And already two pools, particularly, are shaping as tight contests.
In Pool A, the talented line-ups of Auckland, Waitākere and Cambridge are duelling for two spots. Defending champions Auckland got the early jump with a comprehensive 75-30 win over Manawatu White while Waitākere and Cambridge had to settle for an exciting 53-all draw and splitting the points.
Cambridge, featuring former Silver Ferns midcourter Sam Winders at centre after returning from a season in the Australian Super League, clawed back an early deficit to take a narrow 40-39 lead into the last of the 12-minute quarters.
But with goal shoot Chiara Semple chiming in with six unanswered goals in the final two minutes, Waitākere surged back to claim a well-merited draw.
In Pool D, which has five teams, compared to the four of the other three pools, Kerikeri, making their return to the Open Champs, caused the talking point of the day when drawing 48-all with North Harbour.
With ANZ Premiership midcourt sisters Lisa and Holly Mather in their mix, Kerikeri came back from eight goals down to force the draw with goal shoot Amy Latu scoring the last five in succession.
They were quickly brought back to earth in their second match when outclassed 50-28 by a well-credentialled Hamilton City.
In the same pool Wellington got off to a rollicking start with a 56-27 win over Taranaki. However North Harbour found some redemption when bouncing back for a decisive 54-38 win over the team from the Capital to leave the pool wide open.
It was more clear-cut in Pools B and C. South Island teams Christchurch and Dunedin have emerged as front-runners in Pool B with comfortable wins over Hawke’s Bay and Manawatu Green, respectively.
In Pool C, Counties Manukau posted the highest score of the day when claiming an 85-11 win over Gisborne with Comets National Netball League shooters Main-Crystal Maro and Jaelin Tulikaki taking advantage of their experience and time together.
Also in Pool C, Tauranga got off to a winning start when outclassing Howick Pakuranga 55-28.
On the opening day, Kerikeri, North Harbour and Wellington were the only teams to have played two matches.
``It’s great to see a mix of youth and experience at the Open Champs,’’ Nicky Cattermoul, Netball New Zealand Pathway Projects Manager said.
``We have Dunedin, who have an average age of 19.5 years for their team but we also welcome the wealth of experience on the management benches with Te Aroha Keenan (Hamilton City), Irene Van Dyk (Hawke’s Bay) and Janine Southby (Dunedin) all listed as head coaches.
After a positive opening day, Cattermoul expects the competitive juices will only continue to climb in the coming days.
``It was a great opening day and some of those teams are only going to get stronger as time goes on,’’ she said. `` There will be a lift in the competitiveness and what players need to put out there to actually win.’’