As Aliyah Dunn continues to build her reputation under the hoop for the Pulse, the young shooting star reckons she's finally ready for another shot at the Silver Ferns, she tells Merryn Anderson.
Despite being one of New Zealand’s most reliable shooters, Aliyah Dunn isn’t usually one to plan too far ahead.
But another chance to pull on the black dress after four years is something the Pulse sharp shooter is focusing on this season. And she's managing her injuries and lifting her fitness with the goal of playing for New Zealand again.
Dunn, who had a brief stint in the Silver Ferns as a teenager, has continued to make a name for herself in the ANZ Premiership as one of the country's most consistent shooters.
She’s made the top five for goals scored every season since making her debut for the Central Pulse in 2018 as an 18-year-old fresh out of high school.
With averages in the low 90s every season, people might be forgiven for thinking Dunn is older than her 22 years, her maturity and calmness on court reflective of someone with a decade more experience.
But her cool head and calm nature on court is just a reflection of her personality off court, the shooter describing herself as “a pretty chill person.”
“I guess it does help my game - like when it gets real tight, naturally I’ll just be calm,” she says. Like shooting the winner on the buzzer in the Pulse's round four match against the Magic.
Dunn scored the winning goal in the Pulse's Round 4 win over the Magic.
Dunn played every minute of the 2021 ANZ Premiership and finished the season with 539 goals from 601 attempts. And she's continued her form this season, sitting at 248 goals from 265 attempts (an average of 94 percent). After six games, she only sits behind the Steel's George Fisher, who has slotted 258 goals.
She made another strong contribution in last night's 52-39 victory over the Magic, where she shot 35 from 37.
Silver Fern #172, Dunn played two games in the 2018 Quad Series and two games in the Constellation Cup that same year.
Missing out on the 2019 Netball World Cup squad, Dunn hasn’t been able to crack the Dame Noeline Taurua-led side in the past few years, with Taurua requiring strict fitness standards to make the side.
Managing shin splints this season, Dunn has been working on getting in extra sessions with their trainer, working towards getting her as Ferns-fit as possible.
“It’s definitely something I’ve been working towards this year,” she says, wanting to be part of a Commonwealth Games redemption and a World Cup defence for the Ferns in the next 16 months.
“With previous years, it definitely was not my focus, I had other things going on. But this year, I definitely want to give it a crack and see how it goes,” she says.
Dunn isn’t upset at the standards set under Taurua’s coaching reign, despite her international career coming to a halt.
“Obviously a standard is a standard and you can’t change that, that’s just the expectation,” she says. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have high expectations of players, so I’m not against it, it’s just tough work to get it.”
With a condensed ANZ Premiership season due to the Birmingham Commonwealth Games starting in July and Covid delays, Dunn is glad to be able to be focusing on improving her netball game this year.
“I definitely know I’ve changed since my first season. I swear in my first season I just stood there,” she jokes.
While shooting comes naturally to the 1.90m athlete, Dunn is always working on developing her game under the hoop, including drilling movement and footwork in trainings.
“I think I play with a bit more movement now and a little bit more range,” she says, admitting she’s always aiming to expand her range.
“Definitely long-term, I’d like to learn how to play goal attack." She didn't roam from goal shoot in her 900 minutes on court in the 2021 season.
“I get stints here and there during pre-season but I’d definitely like to add that to my game - that would be the next step.”
The young shooter grew up in Invercargill, her first taste of netball coming at Te Wharekura O Arowhenua, a small, full-immersion Māori school. Netball was never a serious part of her life until her time at Verdon College, when she started to move her way up the sport's ladder.
Dunn was a non-travelling reserve for the New Zealand Māori Secondary Schools team for the 2016 International Secondary Schools Netball Challenge, elevated to the team after an injury.
She recalls a game at the tournament in Auckland against the New Zealand Secondary Schools team (NZSS), which ended in a one-goal loss for the Māori team. Dunn was up against current and former Pulse teammates - Tiana Metuarau, Renee Savi’inaea, Courtney Elliot and Ellie Temu.
“It was so frustrating cause it was such a tight game, I just remember it so vividly,” says Dunn.
“I think it was the last dying minutes, Renee freaking got an intercept and then Tiana bloody finished it off under the hoop.”
NZSS won the tournament, but it would be just the start for Dunn.
“Because we were playing against New Zealand representatives, that made me think ‘Oh, I might have a chance’,” Dunn says.
Dunn continued her rise and was chosen for the 12-strong New Zealand U21 team who won the Netball World Youth Cup in 2017, and then made the move north to Wellington to play for the Pulse in 2018.
“Originally, the only reason I moved up was just because I played with some of the girls through U21s,” says Dunn. “I was real good friends with Tiana and Renee and Mila [Reuelu-Buchanan], and they were all playing here at the time.”
The Pulse were victorious in the 2019 and 2020 ANZ Premiership, breaking the reign of the Southern Steel. Dunn played a key role in both finals.
The Pulse's quality players and world-class goal attacks always draw Dunn back, pictured with Ameliaranne Ekenasio.
She's always been drawn back to the Wellington-based side. “I’ve always been surrounded by all top-tier players,” Dunn says. “I’ve been really lucky to be able to play alongside Katrina [Rore], Claire [Kersten], Karin [Burger], Sulu [Fitzpatrick] and Meels [Ekenasio], and they’ve all been real good role models for me.”
After a season away with the Steel, Metuarau returns to join Dunn in the Pulse circle - now with six Silver Ferns caps under her belt.
“We’re definitely challenging each other now that we’re older - we used to just play for fun but now we’re starting to expect more and push more from each other which is always what you want,” Dunn says on their relationship.
Dunn put her study on hold this semester due to the workload of the 2022 season, normally studying Māori papers online at Massey University.
Matching her casual approach to life, she isn’t really sure what she’s working towards, taking it day by day.
“I’m so bad at sticking to one thing so I’ve just sort of been doing random papers here and there just to keep it ticking over I guess,” she laughs.
If she goes home to Invercargill, she often helps out as a teacher aide, which she's done at Te Kura Kaupapa Maōri o Ngā Mokopuna in Wellington too. "But I don’t want to be a teacher cause everyone in my family is a teacher," she says.
As for what’s next for Dunn?
“Definitely just taking it day-by-day at the moment," she says. "I haven’t actually made any plans to be honest moving forward, just kind of seeing how things go, see how the season goes."
Even though she may not have her future precisely mapped out, Dunn’s netball future is only getting brighter.
* In only their third game of the season, the Northern Stars recorded a commanding 63-51 win over the Tactix on Saturday, while the Mystics faced their second defeat of the season, a 64-59 loss to the Southern Steel on Sunday. Despite the loss, the Mystics remain at the top of the table, with the Steel and Pulse close on their heels.
