Bell played at the Thunderbirds from 2010 – 2017 and captained the club in the final year of the trans-Tasman netball league and Season 1 of Suncorp Super Netball. She was part of the 2010 and 2013 premiership-winning sides.
One would assume that a player who spent seven years at a club would have valuable intel on its players, however with wholesale changes at the Thunderbirds this is not the case.
Just four players from the Thunderbirds’ Season 1 team have been contracted with the club for Season 2.
“It is a little bit of an unknown, considering I was there for eight years you’d think that coming up against your old side you would know a little bit about them, but they are quite new, and we don’t know a lot about some of the players and how they work together,” said Erin Bell.
As the Thunderbirds work to form connections with their new-look playing roster, the Magpies will focus on executing their game plan for a full 60 minutes.
“It’s going to be a challenge for us to stick to our game plan for a full game, we haven’t really done that the last couple of weeks,” said Bell. “It’s shown on the scoreboard where we’ve had little patches and the other team has got a run.
“We know that the Thunderbirds have scored pretty highly in their first two games, even though they haven’t come away with a win they definitely can score and we will need to stop that.”
The Magpies have taken plenty of positives out of their opening two games.
“For the majority of the game we are playing good netball,” explained the shooter.
“Unfortunately, or fortunately, in this league if you drop off what you’re doing for five minutes that could be the game.
“That’s all it takes because everyone is such good quality this year. You might stick to your game plan for 90% of the game, but that’s not enough. We really need to make sure that we are staying focused for the entire game.
“In the past, we may have been able to fade off and still get a win, but you can’t afford to do that anymore. That has been quite a focus for us this week,” Bell said.
It will be the first time Magpies fans can watch their team play at home, after facing the Vixens as the away side followed by a trip to Perth against Fever.
Though the club is only in it’s second year, their home games are a sea of black and white.
Bell said, “it will be great to get out there and have a home game with all our fans their cheering us on. It’ll be my first time in front of a home crowd, I am really looking forward to it.
“It will be an interesting game against the Thunderbirds, considering we are both yet to have a win, so it will be good to have the home crowd advantage,” she said.
Watch the Collingwood Magpies take on the Adelaide Thunderbirds on Saturday 12 May at Hisense Arena at 7pm local time on Telstra TV and the Netball Live App or secure your seat.
