Creating a slice of history, Hamilton Girls’ High School became first-time winners after outclassing St Margaret’s College 33-24 to win the final of the FUJIFILM Business Innovation NZ Secondary Schools Netball Champs in Porirua on Friday.
Setting the tone from the outset, Hamilton produced a dominant opening as Christchurch’s St Margaret’s struggled against the persistent speed and physicality.
Proudly flying the flag for the South Island, where they were the first southern team competing in the final for eight years, St Margaret’s remained game competitors throughout but lacked the polish and accuracy of Hamilton Girls.
"This is significant for us,’’ an emotional Hamilton Girls coach Kim Howard said. ``For me personally, the school brought me in as a director of netball to put Hamilton Girls High on the map, and it’s been a collective effort with the girls that have put in the work and all of us behind the scenes.
"I’m just super proud and it’s really significant for us as a school. Not having any Upper North Island tournaments for the past two years because of Covid and me returning home from Australia, it was hard to get a gauge of where we sat.
"So, winning the Upper North Island Secondary Schools tournament this year, we knew that we were on the right track and in with a chance here. I couldn’t have asked for too much more after a mentally taxing and gruelling week.’’
Slick first phase play and smothering defensive work gave Hamilton Girls the edge during the opening stanza. Goal attack Arikinoa Shortland received plenty of ball from her midcourters while providing pinpoint accuracy under the hoop to score all her team’s first quarter goals.
St Margaret’s were knocked off their stride early and struggled for a decent ball supply into reliable shooters Te Ata Hassan and Ivy Brown as Hamilton Girls took a handy 12-6 lead into the first break.
The second stanza produced a combative arm wrestle, the tight marking and suffocating defence of Hamilton Girls kept St Margaret’s on the back foot. The defensive duo of Marawa Samson (wing defence) with four intercepts for the match and goal defence Liza Ball (three) were a menacing presence throughout.
St Margaret’s did their best to stem the flow with wing defence Milly Farrell a determined contributor but Hamilton’s ever-present ability to find space and flow on attack led to a healthy 18-11 buffer at the main break.
Outstanding close marking from Samson and Ball, who grabbed a succession of turnover possession through their ability to snaffle ball from a standing jump, and continued speed of ball movement on attack kept Hamilton Girls on the front foot through the third stanza.
Living off scraps, St Margaret’s generally successful short game was unable to counter the speed and ruthless efficiency of their northern counterparts and they could not break Hamilton’s overall accuracy.
Keeping their foot on the pedal Hamilton Girls’ headed into the last break with a 26-17 lead.
Earlier, the well-performed Avondale College clinched third place with a tight 44-40 win over Howick College.
Narrowly missing a spot in the final, the young Avondale team built a winning buffer through the opening half to lead by six before Howick turned the screws to keep the contest well and truly alive with a spirited second half challenge.
A big third quarter from Howick reduced the deficit to two, Avondale holding their nerve to secure the win.
Outstanding throughout the week, shooter Priscilla Rasmussen was once again a shining light for Avondale College when delivering the perfect return with 39 goals scored from 39 attempts.