The Southern Steel have booked their first netball grand final in eight years, holding off the defending champion Mainland Tactix 60-54 in a sold-out elimination final at Stadium Southland in Invercargill. The win sends the Steel to Auckland to meet the Northern Mystics for the ANZ Premiership title on Saturday.
It was a result the home crowd had been waiting a long time for. The Steel last reached a grand final in 2018, the second of back-to-back titles, and have spent the years since rebuilding under coach Wendy Frew. A capacity crowd of around 4000 packed the stadium and roared the side through a performance that captain Georgia Heffernan said was exactly what the team had been chasing all season.
The Steel set the tone early. They led 17-11 at the first break after Heffernan slotted a two-pointer on the buzzer, then turned the second quarter into the platform for the win, stretching the margin to 32-24 by halftime. The Tactix, coached by Donna Wilkins, never managed to claw the game back, trailing 48-40 at the last break before the Steel closed it out.
Defender Carys Stythe was named player of the match for a display full of tips, intercepts and rebounds that repeatedly broke up the Tactix attack. Stythe and Heffernan were both named in the Silver Ferns squad for the Commonwealth Games earlier this month, and they carried that form into the biggest domestic game of their year.
“We’ve been working so hard for the past two years,” Stythe told RNZ. “We just missed out last year so we wanted to prove to everyone we should be in that final.”
Heffernan, who finished with 22 goals as well as captaining the side, said the win came from a complete team effort. “That was the full 60 minute performance that we wanted,” she said. “I’m so proud of how we played.”
Wing attack Serina Daunakamakama controlled the centre of the court and was another the Tactix could not contain. The Steel’s mix of experience and youth, and the sheer noise of a sold-out home stadium, proved too much for a Tactix side that had won the title last season.
Wilkins was honest about where the game slipped away from her team. “Some poor decisions on attack, threw the ball to the opposition,” she said. “Those are the things that we can look at.” The Tactix had earned their place in the elimination final after a strong regular season but could not match the Steel’s intensity through the middle quarters.
For Invercargill, the night was about more than one game. The Steel have long been one of the strongest community draws in southern sport, and a grand final run gives the region something to rally behind in the depths of winter. The Otago Daily Times described the Steel’s second quarter as a masterclass, the spell in which the home side built the buffer that carried them through.
The reward is a trip north to face the Northern Mystics, who finished the regular season on top and earned direct entry to the grand final. The Mystics are chasing a record fourth ANZ Premiership crown and will start as favourites in front of their own crowd in Auckland. The Steel have not lifted the trophy since 2018, when they completed consecutive titles, and will go in as underdogs trying to upset the league’s form team on the road.
The two sides met during the regular season, and the Mystics carry a deep attacking unit and home advantage into the decider. The Steel will lean on the defensive work of Stythe and the leadership of Heffernan, along with the kind of crowd-fuelled momentum that powered them past the Tactix.
The grand final also caps a strong year for southern netball talent. Stythe and Heffernan earning Silver Ferns selection for the Commonwealth Games points to a pipeline of players coming through the Steel system, and a deep finals run gives them a stage to test themselves against the best the league has to offer before pulling on the black dress again. For a side based at the bottom of the South Island, every season is a logistical grind of long travel and small budgets, which makes a grand final berth all the more notable.
Frew has slowly turned the Steel back into contenders after several seasons in the middle of the table, and reaching the grand final is itself a marker of how far the side has come. Whatever happens in Auckland, the team has already given southern netball fans their best season in years.
The ANZ Premiership grand final between the Northern Mystics and the Southern Steel is set for Saturday 27 June in Auckland.
Will the Steel pull off the upset in Auckland, or do the Mystics have too much at home? Have your say in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
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