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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Vine

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Speaker 1: from Newstalks.

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Speaker 2: EDB Masship Netball Final four o'clock this afternoon, live commentary

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Speaker 2: over on Gold Sport. From four o'clock, the two time

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Speaker 2: defending champion Mystics will host.

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Speaker 3: Let's salute favorite and why not? And what a performance

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Speaker 3: from the Mystics. They march into the Grand Final once

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Speaker 3: again and set it rumpting on their home court and

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Speaker 3: they will host the decider in two.

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Speaker 2: Weeks time, and that is this afternoon. They're up against

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Speaker 2: the Tactics at Trust's Arena in Auckland. Let's bring in

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Speaker 2: Mystics Captain Mikaela sokolch Beats and Makaula. What a season

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Speaker 2: nine wins, just the one defeat clean number one? How

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Speaker 2: did you achieve such remarkable consistency this year?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm great, Christian. I was smiling when you said,

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Speaker 4: like two time champion, it's actually nice to hear that.

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Speaker 4: I forget sometimes that that's the position, right. I think

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Speaker 4: the team did it through just using our entire group,

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Speaker 4: like at times we were forced to because of injuries,

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Speaker 4: but I think as well the coaches gave people opportunities

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Speaker 4: because of what they were doing at training, and I

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Speaker 4: think the fact that you can turn to your bench

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Speaker 4: and know that there's someone ready to go on it

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Speaker 4: just puts a really nice quiet confidence in the group.

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Speaker 2: Of course, after the loss of Grace Wiki, I think

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Speaker 2: a lot of people thought, right, the mystics aren't going

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Speaker 2: to be the same side. They've lost their major threat

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Speaker 2: in the shooting circle. How did you adapt so well

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Speaker 2: to life without Grace?

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Speaker 4: It's a good question, Like, she was awesome, she is awesome.

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Speaker 4: We were sad to see her go, but knew that

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Speaker 4: that was mean she needed to do for her stuff.

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Speaker 4: But then we also got a shoulder like to now

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Speaker 4: an Australian international, somebody who absolutely didn't dominate a goal circle.

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Speaker 4: We had Fielder and Hannah and even Peter step up

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Speaker 4: in that goal attack role, and then Sophia come on.

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Speaker 4: I just think we did it in a real collective

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Speaker 4: way and everyone knew what their job was and how

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Speaker 4: we had to adjust our game plan to work with

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Speaker 4: the people we now had.

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Speaker 2: Did you consciously before the season started work on a

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Speaker 2: different way of playing, I guess and you'll be able

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Speaker 2: to confirm this that when Grace Week is in the

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Speaker 2: shooting circle. There's a temptation just to try and find

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Speaker 2: her every time. Did you have to consciously come up

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Speaker 2: with a different kind of game.

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Speaker 1: Plan, Yeah, you do.

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Speaker 4: When you've got to shoot who's like six foot three

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Speaker 4: thoot four and who can jump a massive vertical jump,

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Speaker 4: that is a huge advantage, right, and just Peter could

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Speaker 4: feed her beautifully. So yeah, we definitely had to change

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Speaker 4: up the way we had to play. But I think

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Speaker 4: that has just added to the strength of everybody's like

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Speaker 4: skills there, and I think, yeah, we were very conscious

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Speaker 4: on how we were going to try and develop our

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Speaker 4: skills so we could slay a different brand and netball.

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Speaker 2: So just one defeat that was to the tactics. Of course,

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Speaker 2: so you play in the final. I know you never

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Speaker 2: like to lose matches, But in hindsight, was it a

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Speaker 2: good thing to remove any possibility of complacency for the final?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, where we didn't turn up in that game at all.

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Speaker 4: I've said in a couple other interhos we were we

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Speaker 4: weren't good, and we were so disappointed with ourselves. It

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Speaker 4: definitely made us look at ourselves quite hard. We reflected

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Speaker 4: a lot throughout that week and that is something that

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Speaker 4: we've been holding on to a little bit. Okay, what

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Speaker 4: did we doing that? How did we go and that?

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Speaker 4: Why did things break down? So yeah, definitely something that

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Speaker 4: I think the mystics needed to just keep our focus

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Speaker 4: really sharp.

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Speaker 2: Last year you won it from third, you had to

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Speaker 2: come through away games in the playoffs. You beat the

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Speaker 2: Tactics and the Polls both away. How different a scenario

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Speaker 2: is it this year with just the one playoff game

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Speaker 2: the grand final on your home court.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's different. It's a lot different. We did it

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Speaker 4: this way the year before and won it, and then

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Speaker 4: last year we had to do all the elimination final

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Speaker 4: and that. It's different when you've got two weeks to

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Speaker 4: sit on the factor in the final, it's different in

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Speaker 4: terms of people talk about it. For two weeks. You

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Speaker 4: get a weekend off playing, so you get a little

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Speaker 4: bit a different sort of routine.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: I think there's pros and cons to each way about it.

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Speaker 2: How did you spend your weekend off and in fact,

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Speaker 2: I guess the last two weeks since you last played

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Speaker 2: to make sure you get that balance right between refreshing

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Speaker 2: but also staying switched on.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's hard one nay and It's one of those

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Speaker 4: things that's kind of like, damned if you do, damned

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Speaker 4: if you don't. It's going to be positive and negatives

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Speaker 4: kind of however you do it. We played a game

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Speaker 4: last Friday and then we did our own conditioning on Saturday.

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Speaker 4: We did try to give the bodies a little bit

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Speaker 4: of reprieve earlier on in the two weeks, just to recover,

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Speaker 4: but then this week we have been honing in and

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Speaker 4: everything has been tough.

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Speaker 2: So you are the two time defending champions now. The

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Speaker 2: steal won two straight in twenty seventeen and eighteen. The

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Speaker 2: Pulseter that in twenty nineteen and twenty twenty, no one's

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Speaker 2: ever won at three on the bounce. How determined ay

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Speaker 2: to become the first team to do that.

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Speaker 4: We are determined. It's actually not think we've spoken a

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Speaker 4: lot about until yesterd and our team meeting, and yeah,

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Speaker 4: we were like, man, that would be that would be

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Speaker 4: epic and that would be cool. But we also know

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Speaker 4: that the tactics are in a bit of a different position,

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Speaker 4: is there haven't won, so they're really gunning for it.

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Speaker 4: You know, it's there for the taking, But then it's

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Speaker 4: our too, So I think both teams have a very

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Speaker 4: similar fight in them, but for different reasons.

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Speaker 2: And as you say, you know you did it in

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Speaker 2: two different ways the last couple of seasons and two

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Speaker 2: very different grand finals as well, and they will buy

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Speaker 2: the last year and they had a very comfortable victory

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Speaker 2: of the year before. So there's two different ways that

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Speaker 2: might go on the weekend or somewhere in between. But

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Speaker 2: are there things that that are common to all grand

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Speaker 2: finals that that you have to do particularly well?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think like you've got to turn up Like

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Speaker 4: Finals Network is so different to regular games. It sounds

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Speaker 4: really weird because you're playing the same people. You're like,

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Speaker 4: why would it be you want to win every game

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Speaker 4: but Final Network. If you watched the Tactics Pulls game Man,

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Speaker 4: that was a game of two halves and it was tart.

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Speaker 4: I was watching, thinking, well, this is brutal. The Tactics

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Speaker 4: had three losses in the second half, that's unheard of

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Speaker 4: the Nipbull. That just shows that they stepped up and

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Speaker 4: they were ready for the challenge.

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Speaker 2: And for you it's a distant memory now, I know,

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Speaker 2: but you had that terrible time of things with your

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Speaker 2: achilles in successive years. I think you had all the

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Speaker 2: bad luck of a whole career sort of rolled into

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Speaker 2: a couple of years. How do you reflect back on

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Speaker 2: that time now?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, honestly, it just makes me grateful that people still

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Speaker 4: believed I could do my job. There was definitely times

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Speaker 4: I thought that no one was going to want me

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Speaker 4: again because I'd look at me as this injury prone girl.

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Speaker 4: And the fact that I've been able to come back

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Speaker 4: and prove the people that I actually am strong and

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Speaker 4: my body is fighting, but then also have people that

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Speaker 4: have believed in me as Yeah, definitely made just grateful

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Speaker 4: to be here.

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Speaker 2: Do you let yourself think about lifting up that trophy

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Speaker 2: again on Sunday early evening?

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Speaker 4: No, honestly, no, I don't want to think about it

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Speaker 4: just yet. I just want to think about what I

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Speaker 4: need to do in the game, and yeah, I don't

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Speaker 4: want to get too caught up in the outcome just yet.

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Speaker 2: Fair enough, fair enough, So thanks MICHAELA all the best,

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Speaker 2: Mikaela Sokolch Beason Captain of the Mystics.

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Speaker 1: Let's get you in for more from Weekend Sport with

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Speaker 1: Jason Fine. Listen live to news Talks it B weekends

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Speaker 1: from midday or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,