Steel Preview 2014 ANZC





The 2014 Southern Steel squad has been finalised and it has featured one of the lowest personal changes out of the 10 franchises.

Steel Squad
Jodi Brown - resigned
Wendy Frew - resigned
Te Paea Selby-Rickit - resigned
Shannon Francois - resigned
Phillipa Finch - resigned
Storm Purvis - resigned
Rachel Rasmussen - resigned
Jhaniele Fowler - resigned/international import
Erena Mikaere - Signed from Magic
Phoenix Karaka - resigned
Stacey Peters - resigned
Gina Crampton - resigned

The big resigning of Jhaniele Fowler to the club is a huge boost after her phenomenal debut season in the ANZ Championships last year where she was named both MVP and Best New Talent. It will be of note to see how her combination with Jodi Brown grows in its 2nd season. 

After spending much of the 2013 season in a predominantly feeding shooter role, it will be closely scrutinised if Jodi can assert herself as a viable shooting option to take some of the pressure off Fowler. After receiving added court time in the international season, i am certainly hoping that she can bring her form and game into the Steel set up in 2014, to make a push towards a finals spot.

The defensive end has been bolstered by the signing of Erena Mikaere to add to the youthful defensive end with Storm Pervis, Phoenix Karaka and Rachel Rasmussen all resigining with the club.

However as a result, Sulu Tone-Fitzpatrick has not been resigned and has not been picked up by another club. After giving birth to twins late last year, perhaps she will be looking to come back and push for a spot in the 2015 compeition. After spending valuable time with the Silver Ferns wider training squad, the U21 team and also the Fastnet Ferns it would be a shame to see her not come back into high level netball.

Shannon Francois is expected to be elevated into the starting WA bib after the loss of Courtney Tairi up north to the Magic and her own personal form in the later stages of the Constellation Cup series and the recent UK Northern Tour. 

Prediction
With the large player transfers this year it will be hard to draw any predictions as how the teams will travel until the first couple of rounds are complete.

The Steel could potentially be close to a finals spot this year but i feel the defensive end could be a weakness, however they proved a number of critics wrong last season and i hope they can prove me wrong this season.

How do you think the Steel will finish in 2014?


0 comments:

Post a Comment

 

Popular Posts

Search This Blog

Contact Me

Name

Email *

Message *