Great to see the Southern Steel back on the winning front – looks good on paper potentially end up Top 3 & playing Finals for a shot at the Grand Final following a huge rebuild in the off-season, we’ll see. 

Magic, meanwhile, have a lot of work to do who were caught off-guard unfortunately with a lot of mistakes left, right & centre by surprise, very disappointing indeed.

Final score was 41-69 to Steel over Magic away from home in Hamilton.

Top 3 players

Easy to say Aliyah Dunn shooting goals has done it with perfection having returned to the Steel this year as a better player. No doubt her experience playing Finals before with the Pulse and Tactix along with her impressive natural shooting game skillset will continue to help Steel win games on the front foot. 

Same with also another ex-Tactix player who just joined the Steel is Kimiora Poi running the mid-court engine in between channels. Doesn’t matter what position she plays or wants to play whether if it’s C or Wing Attack but Poi is here for the vision club legend Wendy Frew wants to build so they can reclaim its former glory over time as the Steel’s new head coach.

Lastly, don’t know or don’t have much to say other than the Magic not being on par at all with the Steel tonight. There were lots of wrong calls, gaining turnovers, poor passing/passage of play & ill-discipline – you name it with no cohesion to rattle the Steel’s territory that goes from A to Z.

If one was to win over 7-10 odd players tonight, I’d say Claire O’Brien at Wing Attack – don’t know why she was hauled off the court following a tough 1st 15 mins when she was running around except no one was really there to help her which went worse and worse from there. Mind you, she is someone who gained some Silver Ferns experience at the back end of last year and for her to come back on when Magic know the game was already gone, it’s just not right.

Reminds me of Maddie Hay from the Giants who also plays in the same spot as Claire (also a former Giant and Swifts player via her country of birth – Australia) during yesterday’s afternoon match v Grace Nweke’s Swifts team in Super Netball when Giants were on par in the first half but when Maddy H was being subbed, it was a horror show past the end without her – that’s that.