Pulse shooter Ine-Mari Venter is looking for a strong outing against the Steel. Photo: Masanori Udagawa
The ANZ Premiership’s most daunting road trip is not enough to dampen the enthusiasm of netball nomad Ine-Marí Venter, who has found a happy landing spot with Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse for the 2026 season.
Luckily, the former South African international shooter enjoys away games, and will be hoping that sentiment rubs off on her team-mates when the Pulse, looking to resurrect their fortunes, come up against a red-hot Steel in Invercargill on Saturday evening.
``Wherever you play, there’s always the intent to get the win,’’ Venter said. ``The Steel’s a strong team who have shown what they’re capable of in the previous two rounds with wins against the Stars and Mystics, so it will definitely be a tough one for us.
`But, personally, and I don’t know why, I like an away game. There’s extra pressure on home games but what a rewarding way to win when it’s someone else’s home ground. It’s going to be a tough one but I’m looking forward to the challenge.
``We have to fix a few things that happened in the last round, so that’s a focus. Yes, we look at their game and what we need to do strategic-wise but a lot of it has come down to our own mistakes, so it’s focussing on fixing those and that will make us more competitive.’’
The Pulse have slipped to back-to-back losses in their last two outings, picking up a losing bonus point on both occasions, but were left ruing an 18-8 third quarter slump against the Stars last week after being well in contention.
The Pulse are still handily-placed just outside the top three on points differential but with the league changing to a two-round format last season, there is little wriggle room for slip-ups.
``In that last game, we drew one quarter, won two quarters and there was just that third quarter where they screwed us over a little bit, so it’s back to the drawing board to find out why it happened,’’ Venter said.
``That’s on us and figuring out how we work our way out of situations where teams get a run on us. Every game we learn something new about our team and what we need to work on.
``There have been glimpses of the good from us and those glimpses are getting longer. The more our connections are coming together, the good is longer than the bad, we just need to sort out the nitty gritty stuff, the little mistakes that have crept in and if we do that, I believe really good things will happen.’’
Venter believes all teams are still settling into their work and errors have been common-place across the board but all-round improvements will keep coming.
``I think once everybody settles in a little bit more and there’s stronger connections the competitiveness will increase,’’ she said. ``So far, we don’t know who’s going to beat who, there’s been surprises every weekend, so that’s exciting. I’ve enjoyed it and I rate the standard.’’
Of her own form, the rangy 1.92m well-travelled Pretoria-born shooter is looking for better and loving the opportunity to be playing alongside former Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio.
``At the moment, I would give myself a 6-7 out of 10,’’ she said. ``I’m not entirely where I want to be. I was a little bit better in the last game in terms of my shooting average (84 percent) as well as my own performance on court in making less mistakes.
``My aim is to get to 90 percent accuracy, hopefully, sooner rather than later and it’s slowly building to where I want to be.’’
After plying her trade in leagues around the world, including England, Australia and her home country of South Africa, Venter, 31, has found her happy spot with the Pulse.
``So far, and not to burst the bubble, it has been one of the best experiences I’ve had overseas,’’ she said. ``I’ve not only really enjoyed Wellington but the Pulse is a very special group and this is the one team where I’ve actually really felt that strong team vibe and team spirit. It is an incredibly healthy environment to be part of.’’
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