‘New Zealand were only running at 75 per cent last season’

Dubai: New Zealand women’s coach Allan Bunting reckons there’s plenty of room for his Dubai and World Series defending champions to grow this year, because they were only running on 75 per cent of their potential last season.

That revelation — ahead of this weekend’s season-opener in Dubai — will no doubt send shivers down the spines of the Black Fern’s rivals this season, especially as they won all but one of the series’ six events last term, succumbing to the USA in the semi-final in Sydney before Canada lifted the title.

The four-time World Series champions are already feared enough in the women’s game having only ever lost one of the total five overall season titles to date to their antipodean rivals Australia in 2015/16.

In Dubai alone they have also won three of the event’s total five stagings, never defending however, having alternated victories every year with two-time winners Australia, who also got the better of New Zealand in last year’s Olympic final.

“After our review last season we felt we were still only running to 75 per cent of our potential,” said Bunting.

“There’s a huge amount of space for growth, and we are focused on doing things quicker and more intense for a bit longer.

“That’s not really a warning (to our rivals),” he added. “It’s just exciting for us because we feel we can grow a heck of a lot, not just the players but also the management group too, if we all get better together we can reach our potential.

“Australia are always a threat,” he said of their previous inability to defend in Dubai because of the Matildas. “They are probably the most consistent side over the last five years, but every team is a threat now, and we are just focused on our opening game against South Africa. Then we have France and the USA, who troubled us in Sydney last year.

“We are not looking any further than our first game, however. When you are New Zealand everybody brings out their best, so it doesn’t matter who you play against you’ve got to put a good performance together or you will lose.”

Unlike the men’s game where a traditional big four or five still prosper, he also said the women’s game was a lot closer, and other teams were a lot closer to bridging the gap on New Zealand and Australia.

“A lot of athletes only started playing within the last three or four years. It’s amazing how quickly it’s grown and quite scary to think how it will grow from here. We’ve got to do our best every game or we will come off second best now.”