New look Tactix start ANZ Premiership strong with 55-49 win over the Stars

At Pulman Arena, Auckland: Tactix 55 (Aliyah Dunn 39/44, Te Paea Selby-Rickit 15/18, Vika Koloto 1/1) beat Stars 49 (Maia Wilson 34/35, Amorangi Malesala 12/16, Jamie Hume 3/7) 1Q: 14-12, HT: 29-23, 3Q: 42-36.

New year, new squad, vastly different Tactix.

Last season’s wooden spooners are off and running in the 2023 ANZ Premiership thanks to a 55–49 victory over the Stars at Auckland’s Pulman Arena on Monday night.

The arrival of shooter Aliyah Dunn, from the Pulse, mid-courter Laura Malcolm from England and the return of Jane Watson – who missed last season due to pregnancy – make the 2023 Tactix a totally different outfit from the one who struggled all season long in 2022.

So with that in mind, it will be a relief for the Christchurch-based club to grab their first win at the opening opportunity over a committed Stars side who lack nothing when it comes to commitment and energy.

Out-gunned for most of the match, the Stars typified their gutsy performance by closing the Tactix’s lead to just four goals at one stage in the final quarter.

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For the Stars, who have lost Kayla Johnson (pregnancy), Anna Harrison (retired) and Lisa Mather (England) for 2023, they will take plenty of positives from their opening match, despite the loss on the scoreboard.

Most notably, their resilience, the standout shooting display of Maia Wilson and the class and leadership of Silver Ferns defender Elle Temu.

At the end of both quarters in the opening half, the Stars showed plenty of fight to close the gap right when the Tactix were threatening to pull away.

Trailing by nine at one stage in the second quarter, the Stars finished strong to cut the deficit to six to trail 29-23 at half-time.

It was a similar story in the third as the Stars fought back to trail by just five at one point before blowing a couple of chances to eventually be behind by six at the final break.

Tactix coach Marianne Delaney-Hoshek will have seen enough to confirm the return of Watson paired with Karin Burger will give her arguably the most dynamic defensive pairing in the competition. Both were outstanding against the Stars.

And at the opposite end of the court, the accuracy of Dunn is there to convert the turnovers created by the star defensive pairing.

There is still room for improvement but given where they were at the end of last season, a first round win was a solid pass mark.

Silver Fern Elle Temu was a defensive weapon for the Stars and will be a crucial element to Kiri Wills’ side this season.

Best on court

Dunn and Burger were outstanding for the Tactix, as was Temu for the Stars but it’s hard not to single out the performance of Watson. It was a standard Watson defensive effort but made remarkable by the fact she was playing in her first premiership game since giving birth to daughter Tia last May and has only previously played managed minutes for the Silver Ferns in January’s Netball Quad Series in South Africa. Aggressive, accurate and a nightmare for the Stars shooters in general, Watson’s first game back was best summed up as inspirational.

The big moment

A five-goal run from the Tactix early in the final quarter sunk the Stars’ winning hopes after they had given themselves a chance by closing the gap to just four goals. A nine-goal gap with around eight minutes to play was just too much.

Match rating 7.5/10

For an encounter featuring two teams playing their opening match of the season, things were pretty tidy in terms of the game’s quality. There were the odd moments of rust, as should be expected in the opening round, but there was no shortage of entertainment. The grit of the Stars to continue to fight back and stay in the match every time they looked beat added to the intrigue.

The big picture

The Tactix will look to keep their unbeaten run going when they play at home for the first time this season as they host the Mystics on Sunday. The Stars make the short road trip on Saturday to tackle the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic as they hunt for their first win of the season.