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Struggling Swifts keeping their cool

21st April, 2009
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NSW Swifts coach Julie Fitzgerald isn’t fazed by back-to-back losses for the defending trans-Tasman champions and is confident injured stars Catherine Cox and Kimberlee Green will be fit for the next round.

The Swifts suffered their biggest ever ANZ Championship loss on Monday, a crushing 63-45 defeat to competition favourites the Magic in Hamilton.

NSW suffered a number of casualties, with skipper Cox hurting the ankle she damaged last year and wing attack Green damaging her fingers.

Both were scheduled to see a doctor on Tuesday.

“Obviously with Cath and her ankle injury we’re not going to be taking any risks, but I’m reasonably confident they will (both) be alright,” Fitzgerald said.

Defender Rebecca Bulley required a couple of stitches and suffered a black eye, while shooter Susan Pratley was feeling very sore following a collision with Casey Williams.

“To be honest, the injuries to Cath and Beck were caused with no contact at all, Kim’s had a bit of contact involved in it,” Fitzgerald said.

“It was as physical as you would expect that standard to be, but they (the Magic) weren’t in any way overly rough.”

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The major damage on the scoreboard was inflicted in the first quarter with NSW trailing 19-7 at the first break to a Magic team Fitzgerald considered the competition favourites.

“We got off to an atrocious start. They were very, very good and the better they got I think we had a little bit of a panic session there and we got worse,” Fitzgerald said.

“We really lost the game in the space of about 10 minutes.”

She was adamant NSW could rectify the problems before their next game, against New Zealand’s Mystics in Sydney next Monday.

“There’s not worries because we’ve lost two games in a row, I do believe that they are things we can fix,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald felt the Swifts had played into the Magic’s hand.

“It’s certainly something we can rectify. We kept putting the ball up in the air which is obviously what the Magic like and we got a little bit lazy with our leads,” Fitzgerald said.

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She took solace from an excellent performance by young shooter Erin Bell, who shot 14 out of 17 after replacing Cox in the second quarter.

Fitzgerald reiterated the need for a full home-and-away, two round competition as she thought it was “so much more fair and equitable”.

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