Erikana Pedersen: Mainland Tactix Captain on her decision to re-sign instead of heading to Australia

The Tactix captain has bucked the trend of netballers heading across the Tasman. 

Erikana Pedersen has re-signed with the team following their breakthrough win of the ANZ Premiership this year. 

She joined Lesley Murdoch for a chat about her decision to stay instead of following many of her teammates. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Great news coming out of the Tactics yesterday. Despite those
players that have left, the captain has stayed with the
ship and Eric Cant of Peterson, how cool that you've
resigned with the Tactics of twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah, it is cool. I know we spoke about it
at the end of the season. You know that we
just knew that a lot of people were going to leave.
That's just the way sport goes. And it's exciting the
new adventures they're going to go on. But yeah, I'm
sticking around for another season at least, which is exciting.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
You're thinking it won't be hard to get people to
buy into the ethos that you developed.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Oh yeah, definitely. Look, I know we've got a great
culture at the Tactics, so no matter who comes into it,
I know that they'll thrive in our environments. And I'm
really excited for the rest of the team to get
announced actually, because I think we've got some exciting players
in our team next season.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
And Hannah and Glenn coming back born and bred here. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Look, Hannah was I think a training partner actually when
I first started at Tactics. It is nice, like I
think we always knew that one day she would come
back to tactics. So I'm really excited for her. I
know that she's grown as a player and as a
person actually living in the nine and playing with those
Mystics girls, So it'd be nice to get a clear

(01:15):
understanding of what she's learned and watch her grow in
our environment again.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
How do you feel about the whole netball environment?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, look, it's an interesting one right now. I'm actually
am I surprised by how many girls have left and
gone away. Maybe a little bit, But you know, like
what a lot of people have said is maybe that
the positive is that, yeah, we do actually have to
start looking at these development players and the ones coming
through and start that whole process again.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Everybody is looking at the signings for the North Island franchises.
We haven't heard too much about the Southern Steel picky
set's the environment of professional sport, isn't it all semi professional? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
It is. Look, I think we were very lucky and
we have been lucky over the last few years that
we've kind of had or cemented a core group of
players that have really stuck by each other. We knew
this was going to happen. We knew that a lot
of players were going to leave and go off and
do their own thing, but it gives opportunity for other
players to step up.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Did you receive any offers to go across the ditch?

Speaker 2 (02:21):
No, I didn't, actually, and it's probably not an opportunity
that I would probably take. Honestly, it was either for
me staying with the Tactic or stepping away from Netbull completely.
There was no other option for me in terms of
I never wanted to play for a different team next season,
but now that I'm fine, I'm just really excited. I

(02:41):
messaged on a few days ago saying can we start
pre season already? I'm so excited, So yeah, I can't wait.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Oh fantastic.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I'm so excited for the team to get announced. I
think there'll be a lot of surprises from the public,
but yeah, I'm ready to get into it.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
So we can't wait either. Thank you. It is really
a very important signing for the Tactics is getting not
only the captain, but someone with your ethics and your
ability on the court. It's fabulous.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Oh thanks Leslie.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
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