Part One - The agony and the agony

Photos by Sahaimi Abdullah / Getty Images AsiaPac

The umpires are Gary Burgess from England and Dalton Hines from Jamaica. Years ago the powers-that-be decided that 'neutral' umpires are required in every international match. As a result, Australian and NZ umpires never get to umpire international matches between Australia and NZ.

The problem with this is that the rest of the world are generally daylight behind many of the aussie umpires and some (well, one) of the kiwi umpires. Burgess is a good umpire, but Baked Beans is, hmmm, unpredictable, inconsistent. Worse still, the reserve umpire is Annie Kloppers from South Africa. Let's hope noone locks Gary Burgess in the toilets before the game starts.

Norma Plummer has opted for the same starting lineup as the semi final. For posterity, here it is:
GK - Susan Fuhrmann
GD - Julie Corletto
WD - Mo'onia Gerrard
C - Natalie von Bertouch
WA - Kim Green
GA - Natalie Medhurst
GS - Catherine Cox

Ruth Aitken, kiwi coach has made a change to her usual starting lineup against Australia at GK:
GK - Liana de Bruin
GD - Casey Williams
WD - Joline Henry
C - Laura Langman
WA - Temepara George
GA - Maria Tutaia (Tuti Fruiti)
GS - Irene van Dyk

FIRST QUARTER

Crowd is at fever pitch. Nervous anticipation in the air. The players take their positions. And from the first whistle it's on. We hold up our end of the bargain by successfully drowning out any errant "let's go kiwi, let's go" chants that start up. The aussie goal is up our end for the first quarter. It's not a great start by the aussies, a couple of turnovers and we're down 2-5 after a few minutes. Attack isn't settled but our defence is keeping us in it. Gerrard takes an inspirational mark going back with the flight of the ball just as NZ are about to push out to an early 4 goal lead. After 9 minutes we've only scored 4 goals.

Luckily NZ aren't capitalising or moving the ball as efficiently as they can. Finally Coxy's long bombs start to sink with 5 minutes remaining in the first quarter, and we've pegged the lead back to 2. She misses a chance to draw even with 2 minutes to go. Up the other end Tuti Fruiti isn't looking comfortable with her shooting, she's missed a few but you know that won't last long.

We finally draw level with 1 minute to go. The aussie fan who brought the cowbell along is working overtime - she bangs a tune, the aussie crowd repeats it with claps. The Fuhrmannator rejects one of van Dyk's shots but Burgess robs her with a penalty in the last few seconds. He's doing a nice job keeping Henry, Langman and Williams under control though. Suddenly it's quarter time and NZ have managed to edge away again. Score 10-12 NZ's way. The kiwis are loving it and we're a little worried, but it's close, as it always is.

SECOND QUARTER

Norma makes an unexpected change at quarter time and drags Green for Chelsea Pitman at WA. I thought Green had been doing alright. We weren't settled yet in attack but she was doing OK. However, Pitman was great in the recent series of test matches so I'm not unhappy. Unfortunately her first pass is straight into the hands of Williams, and after two minutes in the second quarter we're down by 5. Then she cops a Baked Beans special - totally random contact call against her. He always throws in a few randoms each game just to keep everyone on their toes.

Tuti Fruiti misses 3 out of 4 of her shots, Corletto is doing a brilliant job at putting her under pressure. What we would have given to have had a fully fit Corletto in that Commonwealth Games gold medal match last year... She's come back from a potentially career-ending knee injury and revolutionary surgery (patella realignment) 18 months ago, and she's out there carving it up. She's amazing to watch in full flight. Tuti has started passing off what she'd normally shoot.

It's a bit of a scrappy, see-sawing contest. All of a sudden captain courageous Nat von Bertouch comes up with two brilliant round-the-body tips on the ball into our defenders hands and we get a run of 4 goals. Coxy misses a chance to get within 1 goal, and NZ edge out again.

Williams calls a two minute injury time-out just before the ten minute mark. I notice the time, because in each of the games I've seen NZ play recently, in just about every game they have called time with five minutes remaining in a quarter. Williams is limping and has her calf strapped, but it's tactical. They've been training for this break. The crowd is up and dancing during the break and the aussie supporters have come back to life after NVB's turnovers. We dance and get the sign up while the cameras are going past.

The time-out works for NZ, as a messy bit of play between our shooters ends up in kiwi hands and suddenly they're up by 5 again. The Fuhrmannator has done a good job on van Dyk up until now, but VD is on top now, and dominating the NZ circle. We're struggling at the centre pass, Pitman can't find space and the leads aren't well timed. What to do? Should they make another change at WA and bring on Erin Bell, third time lucky? Or back to Green? Or stick it out and allow Pitman more time to work into the game? Who'd be a coach!

Another mistake comes from hesitancy in the forward line, and NZ are now up by 6. Warning bells sounding. Kiwi fans going off. Kiwi players high-fiving each other as they walk off court at half time. We're deflated, and I'm thinking my pre-game sense of calm and winning feeling was denial/bravado/wishful thinking...