The Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic coach says her side needed to play the perfect game to beat the NSW Swifts in their trans-Tasman netball championship semi-final and concedes they simply weren't good enough.
Swifts Jade Clarke tries to take a pass. Photo: Photosport
The ANZ championship final will be an all-Australian affair for the third consecutive year after the Magic were beaten 60-52 by the New South Wales Swifts in Hamilton last night.
The sides went goal for goal until mid-way through the second-quarter, when the Swifts attacked the game, piling on the goals to go into half-time with a 10 goal lead.
Julie Fitzgerald was pleased with the majority of her side's performance, but says even a few errors will cost you dearly against the impressive Swifts side.
"We knew that if we were going to have a chance against a quality side like that we would have to be a little bit above our game for 60 minutes and unfortunately we did have a couple of lapses which let them back into the game. You only need to make two or three errors in a row and all of a sudden their lead is blown out."
The Magic brought Ellen Halpenny on at Goal Attack after the main-break and the home side went on an impressive 7 goal run, to close to within 2 at the end of the quarter.
The Swifts then injected Diamonds big gun Kim Green for the final quarter and after a couple of early turn-overs the visitors regained the initiative.
Earlier, the Northern Mystics were no match for the Queensland Firebirds, losing 60-44 to the Australian conference winners in Brisbane.
