In round 4 of the ANZ Championship, Te Kāea spoke to former Silver Ferns player Courtney Tairi, who shared her predictions on what we can expect in this week’s NZ netball competition.
There's a huge match that will kick off the fourth round of the ANZ Championship this Sunday.
“Both the Stars and Magic are sitting at the bottom of the table, neither of them have won any games so if this week doesn’t result in a draw then one of them is going to take their first game,” says Tairi.
At the bottom of the table are former 2012 overall winners the BOP Magic and the Northern Stars who are just above them.
“I think, for the both of them, they're both playing really well, they just haven’t been able to get that win. I think this Sunday will be a pretty big game and especially Auckland versus Waikato,” says Tairi.
The Mystics will play the Tactix on Monday, but the question is, will the Mystics have their star shooter Maria Tutaia back from her new home in Australia to play in NZ?
“It's always hard in a team when you don’t know when you have players coming in and out. For the girls that are there every day in camp, they'll find it hard too because at the end of the day they could train as hard as they can, but they know they might still not be able to get on court, because Maria might come back into the team so that may be hard," says Tairi.
The Central Pulse are currently on top of the ladder, but they could suffer their first loss in the competition against the Steel next Wednesday.
“The Pulse have come into the season, well I wouldn't say at their peak, but they've come way ahead of everybody else, and the other teams are slowly building so as the comp goes on we'll see teams getting closer to the Pulse,” says Tairi.
The first match of round 4 will be held this Sunday.