Lacrosse legend’s last tournament
GAME ON: The Blax came out fourth in the Australian State Nationals against tough competition. Photo suppli
Alisha McLennan
Whakatāne Harcourts personal assistant Anri Kruger has returned from representing New Zealand, taking on Australia’s Lacrosse State Nationals.
Kruger moved to Whakatāne a year ago, bringing with her decade of lacrosse experience.
She has played lacrosse since attending Cambridge High School, after following some friends into the sport.
“I love sports and was always keen to do anything,” she said.
As it turned out, she had talent for lacrosse and found herself representing the Under- 19s at the World Championships in Canada in 2019, where her team came 6th out of 28.
Since then, she has been coaching lacrosse teams in Waikato and Auckland, including taking an Under-20s New Zealand team to the World Championships in Hong Kong in August last year.
“With school teams and Waikato teams, I’ve travelled quite a bit for lacrosse over the last 10 years. Coaching or training for the Under-20s teams is commitment to a year-and-a-half campaign where you are training every weekend for six to eight hours a day.
“It’s not a funded sport in New Zealand, so you can’t play full time. Parents and players are usually paying their own way.”
She was asked to join a New Zealand representative team on a short-term campaign and joined the New Zealand Women’s Team, The Blax, for the Australian State Nationals, and decided she would play in “one last tournament”.
“We were a development squad, designed to give young players game exposure,” she said.
At the beginning of June, the team travelled to Australia to take on professional lacrosse teams from South Australia, West Australia, Victoria, Queensland, and New South Wales.
“I was one of the senior players in the team, mentoring the younger ones. They did really well; a lot of these girls had never competed internationally before.”
She said there was “quite a big difference” in the competition, with the Australian women’s lacrosse team being ranked third in the world compared to New Zealand’s 12th.
The Blax main goal was to work on player development and skill set, but alongside this managed to finish fourth in the six-team tournament.
After a decade of devotion to the sport, Kruger is looking forward to taking a step back and spending more time with family and friends.
