Silver Fern Te Paea Selby-Rickit is happy to take on a bigger shooting load while the Mainland Tactix deal with injuries, plus she knows it's good for her game.
Te Paea Selby-Rickit playing for the Tactix. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The Tactix hope to have shooter Ellie Bird back in action this round after missing last week's ANZ Premiership match against the Steel due to a head knock a week prior.
The 1.96m shooter will have further tests to determine if she can take the court against the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic in Nelson on Monday night.
The Tactix were also without Jess Prosser for the match after suffering a knee injury while playing for Mainland in the National Netball League and is unlikely to return this season.
Coach Marianne Delaney-Hoshek will again call on Kate Grant and Amelia Walmsley, who made their ANZ debuts against the Steel, as cover.
Against the Steel, Selby-Rickit finished the game with 18 from 20 - her best shooting performance of the season.
"I felt like I really needed to step up shooting-wise with Ellie being away ...she's been a huge target for us, she can take on that sort of responsibility but having new people in I felt like I needed to step up," Selby-Rickit said.
Selby-Rickit has struggled with accuracy at times but unlike some shooters who will go into their shell and offload to the other shooter, she thinks it's important to go to the post.
"That's something that I've been working on this year, even though I know Ellie's a big target at the back there and she's been shooting really well I need to be able to take the pressure off her as well and put some shots up.
"So for me just getting into the circle sooner and not hesitating and going to the post first especially when I know I'm in my shooting range."
Selby-Rickit missed the first two games of the season after she picked up an ankle injury in the pre-season tournament.
Halfway through last year's ANZ Premiership season she tweaked her achilles and it was an injury that lingered.
"It was quite tough but it's going really well this season, I think I've built a lot of strength in my calves to be able to handle that sort of load. It's heaps better this year ...but still just sort of trying to manage coming back from the ankle but yeah tracking well at the moment."
Te Paea Selby-Rickit shooting against Australia in 2018. Photo: Photosport Ltd 2018 www.photosport.nz
The achilles injury meant Selby-Rickit wasn't available for last year's Taini Jamison series against the England Roses.
"It sort of got quite bad after Cadbury Series so I spent a couple of months just rehabbing and trying to get my fitness back up after that. It had me out for about six weeks towards the end of the year and then building back in, trying to get my fitness back."
When she went to the Silver Ferns' training camp in January she did wonder if she had had enough time to get her fitness back up.
"I had been back training for a couple of weeks before that camp and I sort of hoped that maybe I had a bit of fitness from last year and maybe that couple of weeks could help me. But in the back of my mind I did know that I wasn't where I wanted to be.
"But I still really wanted to go and give it a crack and try and do the best I could, but didn't quite get there but I'm happy that my fitness is back up to nearly to where it was now."
That also meant Selby-Rickit wasn't in contention for the Constellation Cup series against Australia in March.
"This year is a new year and I'm just focussing on trying to do what I can for the Tactix so hopefully that fitness has built back up and I can get a better test score next time we test, which I think is about a month away."
With Silver Ferns' captain and starting goal attack Ameliaranne Ekenasio expecting her second child, there's an opportunity for Selby-Rickit to cement a place in the Ferns' starting seven.
And the 29-year-old believes the best way to impress the selectors is to be consistent.
"I think that's been something that I haven't really done in the past. I've done things well in patches but just not consistently ...so that's when I need to step up for Tactix during the ANZ season.
"I need to be able to step up when the team needs me when we get into tight situations and just be able to do my role so that's what I'm focussing on at the moment.
"With Meels [Ameliaranne] gone there's been so many goal attacks that have stepped up in the competition this year so it's really good to see that everyone's working hard to try and go for that position but for me just consistency."
Silver Fern starting goal attack Ameliaranne Ekenasio won't be available for the rest of the year. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The Tactix sit fourth on the ANZ Premiership ladder after nine rounds and every game will count with a tight race to the finals on the cards.
Selby-Rickit said while the Magic were on the bottom of the table, they were very wary of their next opponent.
"They've really pushed some teams in recent weeks they only had a one goal loss to the Steel just recently.
"So we know they're really physical, they've got some good players that have just come back, they've got Holly Fowler back and Grace has been back for a few weeks so it's going to be quite different to the first time we played them."
The Tactix have also been involved in a number of tight games this year and continue to practice different scenarios to close out a game.
"Sometimes it's worked well for us and helped us like the Mystics game but sometimes we have got it wrong so it's about being able to execute under pressure so we'll keep practising those things."
She said the approach can change depending on the opposition.
"Every team's defence is different so it's not going to be as easy to just pass it around for as long as you want or things like that. But we've just go to do what works for us and that's playing off the body, taking our feet into the ball, making good decisions ...try not to focus too much on what the other team are doing."
