The Robinhood Comets have their Synergy Hair Netball League destiny in their hands and coach Michelle Parson says they have the ability to book their plane tickets to the final this week.
The second-placed Comets host the Northern Marvels, sitting in third, at Pulman Arena in Auckland on Sunday with the match offering them an opportunity to book a place in the 14 May Grand Final at TSB Arena in Wellington.
As a coach, Parsons admits to a few “butterflies” ahead of the match with her side addressing a few challenges they’ve faced on court in recent weeks.
A narrow loss to the Southern Blast in Round 6 came as a bit of a surprise but the bye week following was the perfect opportunity for a lot of “self-reflecting”.
“We haven’t been performing the way we want to perform, and it’s been about ‘what’s the missing link’,” Parsons said.
“So we’ve taken a look at ourselves and it’s about what we need to do to enjoy our netball again over the next few weeks.”
Defensively, the circle duo of Lili Tokaduadua and Khanye-Lii Munro-Nanoa have been winning the Comets plenty of ball but converting it into points on the scoreboard has been an area they need to address.
Parsons believes they had put too much focus on what the statistics sheet was telling them and moving away from the enjoyment factor up front.
“It is a bit of a clinical look at what we’re doing further up court. We are getting a little bit caught up in the whole ‘this is where we sit on the table, so we’ve got to do this and this to stay there,’ instead of let’s enjoy our netball because that’s when we do really well.
“I’m wondering if we’re overthinking what we’re doing on attack – everyone drills into our stats and we’re looking at CPA conversion rates or CPA efficiency or whatever. It’s all those things that they’re starting to think about, so this week I’m very much going back to let’s keep it to what we enjoy doing on attack.”
Parsons said it was as simple as “look for purple” and trusting in their own skills and those of their team-mates.
“They have to trust that they also know what they’re doing – they’re skilful players and we just have to look after each other,” she said.
“We need to be able to spin the stats so that we’re not getting deep in the hole of what they mean, as opposed to are they reflecting to what you’re feeling on court.”
The Comets coach is passionate when it comes to seeing her charges reach the season finale, and being so close, after what she describes as a challenging year.
“The girls have worked so hard, and they’ve overcome so many challenges that they deserve the right to earn that opportunity.
“For me it’s about if we can control the controllables against the Marvels, thinking about purple and not getting too caught up in anything else.
“If we nail it this weekend, we’re in the final.”
In other SHNL matches this weekend, the defending champion Central Manawa, who sit at the top of the points table and have already booked their place in the Grand Final, host Mainland at Ākau Tangi Sports Centre in Wellington.