Alexander: The bravest coaches are winning the great Super Netball risk-reward battle

Especially in netball where if you are making too many changes you will lose “your team flow”.

It was a key aspect of my own coaching struggles and triumphs as I reflect on my coaching career. I have concluded winning is based on taking risks and being brave when it counts.

Being risk averse is a real issue facing all the Super Netball head coaches.

It is the balancing act we all face when trying to win a championship – risk versus reward.

It is what the greatest coaches in the world struggle with day in and day out, when to make the changes in a squad, when to make the correct substitutions, when to change tactics to build on a score or chase a score down.

When to leave the team as it is and coach it out of a trough – or “go to the pub”, as Simone McKinnis famously did last year with the Melbourne Vixens.

It is strategy in action from a performance plan point of view, but does it get done on court in the moment when a coach’s job may be on the line?

When do we “test” the inexperienced athlete to be able to bring them on confidently in a pressure moment in a grand final?

Do we ignore new and raw talent such as Lily Graham, Elsa Sif Sandholt, Maggie Caris, Sloan Burton, Charlotte Sexton now because we are not prepared to take the risk?

Is replacing Sarah Klau with Katrina Rore a risk? Why wasn’t a training partner or another defender from the Australian pathway selected? Which is the greater risk?

We are a third of the way through the season and it is beginning to look like the haves and have nots.

Dan Ryan can be well pleased with the Fever so far given the injuries he has had to face, his experience of winning in the past gives him the clues about what works but he has new players and new staff and all of this must be woven together to make the Dan tapestry – I would conclude that Ryan is getting the balance right at the moment of the risk versus reward dichotomy.

Tania Obst has put together a mighty team and new combinations built on defensive stability. Obst is also testing the limits of the team by regularly changing up the combinations she starts and finishes. A key “risk” Obst has addressed is being loyal to her SA pathway developed athletes, coaching them to the next level and then playing them in matches.

She also appears to be getting the balance right now and has a star performer in her assistant coach Cathy Fellows (another winning strategy).

Briony Akle has an experienced line up and a young bench to inject that needed change when the moment presents itself. The NSW Swifts have not started as hot as we may have all thought but I do know from observing Akle that she is a coach who will take risks to get the ultimate reward.

Akle is also an innovator and will be seeking to arrest this temporary trough – perhaps this is why she has chosen Katrina Rore to replace Sarah Klau.

Of the new head coaches, Di Honey appears to be on track to lift her Vixens to another final four on the back of a largely unchanged, if not strengthened, side. Can she take the risk/reward this season to bring on her youngsters mentioned earlier and manage the more mature athletes in her squad? Time will tell.

Mavericks coach Gerard Murphy has shown he is not afraid to make changes and give players specific roles, and to introduce youngsters. Some may argue too many changes and not enough flow? Getting this right should see the Mavs head into finals.

Nerida Stewart at the Giants has been handed a young squad, with injury concerns already and definite questions about the ability to physically match the opposition teams so far.

It is going to take a hell of a lot of solid coaching skill to get this team winning and believing they can. This is the exact situation when a coach is really “earning” their pay as they say. Stewart will be weighing up the need to take more risks or build now for long term success. To her credit this was evident in a very close loss to the ladder leaders, and bringing in young NSW prospect Dakota Thomas to replace Jane Watson.

Our two Queensland based coaches have had a mixed start, especially Kiri Wells, who achieved her first win of the Firebirds’ season last weekend despite having three Silver Ferns in her side.

Wells has shown an ability to take risks when needed including putting youngster Sandholt onto the court against Shamera Sterling-Humphrey where she did extremely well.

Belinda Reynolds has four Australian Diamonds in her Sunshine Coast team, and the captain of the Silver Ferns, and was expected to be right up there in the final four. The Lightning have taken time to “gel” together and it is still a work in progress.

Reynolds, in her third year of coaching the Lightning, will use all her skills to get the best combination on the court and effect the right changes, if she can get this risk versus reward balance right, Lightning could win a championship.

This is another reason why sport is the greatest show on earth. It is full of drama, intrigue, strategy and if you’re lucky great elation. It all comes from risks and rewards.