The ‘hoist’- a defence strategy that undoubtedly coined the Fiji men’s netball team’s historic win in the Men’s Netball Nations Series in Singapore last week.
This defense tactic which is said to have been invented by the Singapore netball team was made popular by former Silver Ferns star defender Anna Harrison 12 years ago.
Fiji had a taste of this strategic move during the Nations Series final, avoiding an Aussie onslaught and eventually winning 55-54.
This came at the realisation that a solid defensive game was needed with Australia already running away with an eight-point lead in just the first quarter.
“Australia is too clinical and very structured. Their shooters are just putting those balls in even when we have only one defender defending. We had to come up with a strategy to block them because they were seamless in their shooting,” Fiji men’s head coach Jioweli Makare said.
Makare who strategically analysed their game drew inspiration from the decorated Kiwi defender and entrusted his defenders to execute the move with precision.
“I told them that we are human beings, and we all make mistakes. So, we had to come up with a strategy to tackle those perfect shots and that was what we did. We had to block a few of those shots by lifting other defenders and towards the end of the game, they were missing shots even below the post.”
The Hoist is also called the chair lift in some countries.
It is a legal defensive move that sees a defender lifting a teammate to block an attempt at goal.
The defender only needs to be three-feat away from the shooter to execute the move.
Meanwhile, the team was hosted to a morning tea celebration by sponsors FinanceHub at Vinod Patel in Centrepoint, Suva.
