Mark Pirie's poem for Silver Fern Maria Tutaia
After watching the Silver Ferns victory over England in Wellington last week, I wrote a poem for Maria Tutaia. There was a magic moment in the test match when Tutaia's shot rebounded twice and she got the goal third time lucky. She was cool and calm throughout, but after acknowledged the crowd with a smile.
I've been an admirer of Tutaia's role as Goal Attack over the past couple of years. Centre Langman and Goal Shoot van Dyk have a great understanding but so too does Tutaia with van Dyk. Tutaia is also good on defence. She showed her skills again in the final test match of the season helping the Ferns defeat the Diamonds with a great third quarter of shooting. I'm so pleased for Wai Taumaunu the coach.
Click on this link to read the poem. It was published by Joseph Romanos in The Wellingtonian, Thursday 1 November 2012.
As a boy I used to watch netball with my Mum who was a former player. My sister also played netball and hockey at school.