Silky Skills Alive In Margharet Matenga

Tu Tangata, Issue 28, 1 February 1986, Page 14

Silky Skills Alive In Margharet Matenga

by Michael Romanos

Takaro

The drab and stuffy New Zealand Railways fourth floor accounts section in Wellington needed a miracle to brighten it up. And miracles do not come any brighter than Margharet Matenga (nee Kamana) perhaps New Zealand’s finest ever goal shoot/goal attack netballer, certainly the world’s best over the last several years.

Radiating an air of gaiety and always willing to produce a beaming smile, Margie's presence made the NZR office feel and look a lot more acceptable as I settled into a discussion with Matenga on her brilliant netball career which began in the little village of Tupapa in Rarotonga.

A Cook Island Maori, Margharet (a Celtic derivative of Margaret) was born 29 years ago and arrived in New Zealand as a 17 year old in 1973. The sft 9in, athletically-built and graceful moving netball superstar left Rarotonga initially to further a budding tennis career in NZ.

She arrived in Auckland but arrangements flopped. Still she decided to stay on with some family ties here. She shifted to Wellington in 1974 in time for the netball season and that year she made the Pacific Island Church (PIC) Club’s senior second team and the Wellington under 20 representatives. Netball had taken over as the major sport for the former Rarotonga Island netball rep.

Margie’s rise in netball was meteoric. She first played for the Wellington senior reps in 1974 and from 1978 she has been a member of every New Zealand senior rep side.

Her daughter, Luciana was born in July 1982 but Margie only missed domestic netball, turning out for New Zealand in November, 1982 for the tour to Britain.

“I'm better off at goal shoot than goal attack although I feel guilty that the other players are busting their guts to get the ball to me and the position’s restrictions means I can't move around to help them out,” said Matenga. “But I’m more needed as a goal shoot because of my abilities to jump and shoot well from within the goal circle.”

Margie has been described by various experts as a “brilliant goal shooter. Remarkably cool under pressure. Incredible balance. Having real star qualities with silky skills. Lightning quick reflexes. A great player. A deadly accurate eye. Having sticky fingers. Able to confuse the opposition. Always ready with a quick smile." Margie did smile at hearing all these plaudits.

“Where did you pick those up from?” she wanted to know. But she finally admitted she felt those kind of comments

were the truth. “I wouldn’t like to say them myself,” she added. “I always try to play up to what has been described as me. But all those attributes seem to come naturally to me. Don’t they? I haven’t really worked on any of those things. I hate training but when any rep team gets together I enjoy the team training effort. But I do feel fitness is very important.”

Margie said she gets very nervous at the start of a game. “I worry if I don’t get nervous. But as soon as the game is underway I come right. Probably I have some kind of extra sense to judge where the ball is going, otherwise it is really inexplainable. I’m a pretty cheerful person and I often break into a smile even in the most tense moments. It’s probably because I enjoy the drama of the game.” One of six children, Margie’s parents

are Teanua Kamana and Poko Kora. Margie is related through her mother to the Maori people of the Wanganui area. A grandmother three times removed was a Malaysian and somewhere there is a little European influence.

Her husband, Teariki Matenga is also Cook Island-born and has Rarotongan, Fijian and Scottish origins.

The couple married in 1982, returning to Rarotonga for the wedding service. They had met at a Cook Island Christmas social in Wellington.

Matenga said her worse netball setback was a damaged archilles tendon which required an operation in 1982 and could have affected her career permanently. Another serious injury has been a damaged kneecap which is still causing bother.

Matenga listed her major highlights: Winning the 1979 world championships in Trinidad by beating the favoured home-team in the final. Winning the mini-world series in 1981 in Australia. Winning the Australian Games contest in January 1985. Beating the current world champions Australia to win the World Games in London last July.

“My biggest disappointment was losing the world champs to Australia in Singapore in 1983. On the day they played better than us. We made too many mistakes.”

Last season, Matenga again captained the stylish Wellington reps to retain the national provincial title and a measure of Matenga’s play was in the match against the strong Canterbury side where she took 43 shots and miss-

ed netting only 10. In the World Games final in London last July against Australia, Matenga converted 19 shots from 23 attempts.

Matenga was a finalist for the NZ Sportsman of the Year title in 1981. This writer nominated Matenga for the 1985 award.

Matenga said her netball ambitions are to get to the next world championships in Scotland in 1987 and for New Zealand to regain the world crown.

“Then I’ll see how I feel after that. Teariki and I are thinking seriously of going back home to Rarotonga to live permanently within the next five years. I think I have reached my peak in netball and I’m currently staying at that level.”

Matenga said the Swiss Maid national netball league is a good idea. “It strengthens the club competitors at a top level. It shouldn’t be made provincial. The league as it is helps raise the standard of players far better than taking the cream from each association.”

The player-coach of the PIC premier one team since 1983, Matenga says she enjoys the role.

“I’ve got Wai Taumaunu and Rita Fatialofa (both fellow NZ team members) to assist me. I feel I get a lot of response from the players because I’m associated with them. Apart from Wai, we are all Islanders. We have won the Wellington competition for the past two years but we didn’t do very well in the national league. I have every hope we can improve next season with better preparation.”

Matenga said Waikato Maori, Margaret Forsyth is the best shooting partner she has played with. “We have played together for New Zealand since 1979 and we have a wonderful understanding. Margaret is quick, she can jump and is a hard and determined worker who on her day can shoot from anywhere.”

Matenga says netball is getting more popular with the countries that play the game. She acknowledges the increase in media coverage in New Zealand and hopes the sport will start to develop in other countries.

Apart from New Zealand which has 174,000 participants, the sport is played fairly extensively in Australia, Great Britain, the West Indies, the Pacific Islands, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

“It is a good sport for the Maori and other Polynesians. It seems to be made for them through its ball skills and teamwork,” said Matenga.

PIC is unique in New Zealand netball. It has the only premier one team which is entirely made up of Polynesians. The club has five teams which include a few pakehas.

“We all get along fine, all the different Island and Maori people and it is good for breaking down the Island racial barriers.”