Pulse shooter Amelia Walmsley Photo: Photosport
One of the beauties of sport lies in its unpredictability and Pulse coach Yvette McCausland-Durie doesn't mind admitting that she did not predict the exponential growth of Amelia Walmsley.
The 19-year-old Pulse goal shoot sits third across the ANZ Premiership league for volume of shots and at 86.3 percent accuracy has been a pillar for the side.
After squeaking out a one goal victory over the Magic yesterday, the Pulse now sit second on the ladder, just behind the Mystics with two rounds to go.
When McCausland-Durie signed Malawi international Joyce Mvula last year after the departure of strike shooter Aliyah Dunn, she always envisaged the 29-year-old would be a starter.
"Absolutely, I still see in her what we looked at which was a really athletic, mobile shooter who could play both goal shoot and goal attack and I don't think that bit had changed," McCausland-Durie said.
"The challenge for Joyce has been just settling on the shot, then on the counter to that we had such a massive improvement from Amelia [Walmsley] because equally I didn't see that coming.
"And I think her growth and the rate at which she has improved has been significant and that's allowed us to have a really strong holding player at the back."
Mvula spent six seasons with the Manchester Thunder in the UK Super League, while also playing a pivotal role in the team's unbeaten run to the title last year.
McCausland-Durie has been impressed with Mvula's professionalism.
"This is new for her not to have game time and I've just been so impressed with her ability to go 'I'm doing what I've got to do' she still works hard every day, she's engaged as a team member, she willingly supports Amelia and they support each other really well.
"When you're a competitor that is not an easy thing to do. One of the great things is we believe she is a better athlete for the experience and she heads into the World Cup with Malawi and we're really proud of how she's going to present herself there."
Malawi shooter Joyce Mvula Photo: PHOTOSPORT
In her first season with the Pulse straight out of school last year, Walmsley got a total of 18 minutes across the entire season.
While McCausland-Durie had expected to give her more court time this year, the 19-year-old has far exceeded expectations.
"We'd always said to Amelia 'give us two years, we want to be in a position to increase your minutes and that you'd be in line for the NZ U21 team and be the first person they put on their list' so yeah we feel like we've achieved that goal for her."
McCausland-Durie said she felt confident having Walmsley out on court because the players around her were so strong.
"I think that's been successful because of the strength of the front three in Maddy [Gordon], Whitney [Souness] and Tiana [Metuarau] who have just been so careful with their service, their ability to get ball, to place it in the right spaces so that Amelia is able to just do her job."
McCausland-Durie said the exciting thing was that Walmsley was a work in progress.
"Physically there's still massive work to come and to be at this stage and still have that room to improve is huge.
"But mentally she's a really resilient character and you have to be to handle some of the physicality that she plays under in the shooting circle.
"And I think part of that is then showing her what we think is her potential, giving her the opportunity, and she's just seized it and every week she's very clear about the little things she's going to do better."
Pulse coach Yvette McCausland-Durie Photo: Photosport
At the end of Round five the defending champions were in a bit of trouble sitting 5th on the ladder, but have now won seven straight games.
Pulse coach Yvette McCausland-Durie said she was confident they would find their mojo.
"I always believe in players and I always believed that even though we'd had losses they were close and so we were competing. I really trusted that there were a number of facets that were working really well and it was just a matter of tweaking," McCausland-Durie said.
"At that point we had lots of new combinations that were still settling, they've had time now and find what works for them. I think those connections make a big difference and hence retention has always been a really important part of our programme here."
The popular coach, who is stepping down at the end of the season, said her side's full potential was still to be realised.
Walmsley said every game she played this season was a learning curve.
"The biggest challenge for me is to continue to step up each week and there is that pressure being so inexperienced to continue to perform and so I think that's the biggest challenge is kind of more the mental side," Walmsley said.
With her shooting partner former Silver Fern Tiana Metuarau, Walmsley has been in good hands.
The Pulse again have the youngest average age of all the teams in the competition, at 23.8 years.
Metuarau is only 22 herself but started in the Pulse as a 16-year-old, so knows what the pressures are like for a younger player.
"Tiana is very supportive, we're great friends off the court too and I think that really shows on court as well and she is a great leader on court for me, gives a lot of great advice."
As a youngster Walmsley also did a bit of athletics and volleyball.
When she was 12 she had to chose between her two main sports of netball and gymnastics because she got plantar fasciitis, a foot condition which causes pain in the heel.
"The hard surface can be hard on the ligaments on your body at such a young age. I was going to play on a hard surface, whether it was through gymnastics or netball, and then it could be managed.
"Netball was an easy answer for me it's something I've been passionate about ever since I was little."
Tiana Metuarau Photo: Photosport
It wasn't until college that Walmsley really shot up and started playing goal shoot.
At 1.92m, Walmsley is one of the tallest players in the ANZ Premiership, just a centimetre shy of Silver Fern and Mystics shooter Grace Nweke.
It's no secret she got her height from her father Kerry Walmsley, a former New Zealand fast bowler, who at 6 foot 6″ (just over 2 metres) was one of the tallest cricketers going.
Amelia grew up in a cul-de-sac and enjoyed playing street cricket with the neighbourhood kids but said netball had her heart.
Metuarau has been impressed with how much Walmsley has improved over the course of the season.
"The most notable thing is probably that when the going gets tough she somehow manages to get herself out of it which is quite uncommon with young athletes, particularly she's playing against Silver Ferns and she's doing so well," Metuarau said.
"She's made really big gains and especially when I think about last year she didn't play that often and to just step up and be such a huge force within our team and also the competition is really cool."
Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse have advertised for a new head coach for next year's ANZ Premiership season.
The franchise wants to complete the process in time for the coach to complete the 2024 roster.