Tui’s Magic carpet ride into a new netball era

2026-02-26 - 16:07

Saviour Tui spent the summer strengthening her shooting hands – but not in the way you might expect. Between ANZ Premiership seasons, the cool, calm Magic shooter worked for a Tauranga flooring business, ripping up old carpet and hauling it out of houses. “I had such sore hands for the first week. Muscles I’ve never felt before in my forearms and hands,” Tui says. The 24-year-old smiling assassin of New Zealand netball wanted a physical off-season challenge. With a little help from Magic stalwarts Sheryl and Gary Dawson, who she lives with in Tauranga, she was soon rolling up her sleeves with Tony Rich at Gerrand Floorings. “I didn’t want a job where I was sitting inside. I wanted something hands-on,” Tui says. “The first time Tony took me to rip up carpet, at a nice house, I was honestly sweating hard out – and I was so slow. He showed me how to roll it up and carry it out without hitting the walls.” Sheryl Dawson has seen Tui thrive through the experience. “She just lit up at the dinner table every night telling us stories about lugging carpet around and meeting new people,” she says of Tui, now part of the Silver Ferns squad. The Dawsons have played defining roles in Waikato-Bay of Plenty Sport for decades. Sheryl was in marketing with the Magic during the franchise’s early days and was CEO when they became the only New Zealand team to win the ANZ Championship, in 2012. At the same time, Gary was chief executive of the Chiefs when they won their first Super Rugby title. Saviour Tui in the Magic’s 2026 dress. Photo: Michael Bradley The couple have also taken players under their wing each season since 2003, when Silver Fern shooter Anna Senio and her husband, All Black Kevin Senio, came to stay during the National Bank Cup season. “It’s been exciting watching them come, grow and go,” Sheryl says. “It’s fascinating most of them have been shooters.” Among those shooters have been Australian Tanya Lund, Arahi Wall, Julianna Naoupu and Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio. “We often forget how much of an impact that dislocation can have on a player’s growth. They need to be looked after when they’re away from home,” says Dawson, now Magic’s commercial manager. Tui contacted the Dawsons at the end of the 2024 season, her first with the Magic, and asked if they’d take her in the following year. Ekenasio had been staying with the couple for three seasons but was moving her family up from Wellington for the 2025 season. “Saviour came to see us with her parents, we had a lovely dinner, and then she joined us last year,” says Dawson. “She’s a fantastic help around the house, and she loves learning to cook. She’s so kind and caring.” Tui says she loves the Dawsons, whose support has gone far beyond giving her somewhere to lay her head. “Sheryl has helped me to get my mind right – sometimes I just need a knock to the head to get focused,” she giggles. Saviour Tui (right) and Steel’s Carys Stythe go for the ball during the 2025 ANZ Premiership season. Photo: Michael Bradley Dawson has watched the young woman who joined their household last year blossom on and off the court. “Over the year we began to see who she really was and we talked a lot about how important it is for her to stay her authentic self. She’s a unique and special young woman,” she says. Tui returned to fulltime training with the Magic last month, preparing for the season start in April. She’s disappointed she missed the team’s training camp Ōhope after being struck down with a stomach bug. But she’s looking forward to taking on more responsibility in the Magic shooting circle, now Ekenasio has moved back home to the Pulse – the team’s biggest loss this season, alongside Claire O’Brien’s move to the Stars. Tui’s young shooting partners this season, Kate Taylor and Sarah Guiney, both played for the New Zealand U21 side at last year’s World Youth Cup in Gibraltar. Tonight, they put their combinations to the test in their first pre-season match against the Stars in Rotorua. “We’re all strong shooters but I definitely know that I need to step up,” Tui says. “Meels was a good leader inside the circle for me, and now I need to do the same.” She has a “natural connection” with Taylor, who played her first full season with the Magic last year. “Kate is really strong in the circle, she knows how to hold herself and angle strong to get the ball. She’s definitely a leader, too – she’s happy to speak up,” she says. “This is definitely just the beginning for Kate.” Saviour Tui is expected to play most of the 2026 season at goal attack. Photo: Michael Bradley Magic coach Mary-Jane Araroa has asked Tui to move from goal shoot to goal attack, and it’s a challenge she’s relishing. “One of my goals this year is to grow my game. I like playing goal attack, but I just need to be more confident there. I definitely need to get my fitness back up, so I can last out there and be smarter,” Tui says. Last season, playing mostly at goal shoot, Tui ranked among the league’s top five for goals scored. She also sank the most super shots – 27 in all – with a 45 percent success rate. “I thought the two-point shot brought another level of fun to the game, especially for others watching. No matter what the score was, you could always catch up in the last five minutes of the quarter. Or if you were winning, you couldn’t be complacent,” she says. It was a break-out year for Tui, who spent four relatively quiet seasons with the Mystics and the Steel before being given the opportunity to show her athleticism, balance, accuracy and composure in the Magic shooting circle. Her side finished fifth last season, despite some close finishes thanks to Tui’s super shots. After being included in the Silver Ferns squad for the first time last year, it remains her goal to play in the black dress – even though Tui, of Tokelauan-Samoan heritage, played for Samoa at the 2022 Oceania qualifiers (they failed to make it through to the 2023 World Cup). She wore the pink dress for FastFerns in the FAST5 World Series in 2024. A teenage Saviour Tui starred for the Central Manawa in the 2019 Beko Netball League. Photo: Michael Bradley Tui knows about taking opportunities with both hands. In 2020, she came straight from the feeder National Netball League – after helping Central Manawa to back-to-back titles – to be the starting goal attack at the Mystics alongside 18-year-old goal shoot Grace Nweke. It was a baptism of fire – her first year out of St Mary’s College in Wellington while studying at a Bible college in Auckland. But she hopes other young players take their chance to shine in a premiership that’s lost eight of its Ferns to the Australian league. Tui admits she misses her family in Wainuiomata. “Every time we go home for our breaks, it’s always hard to say goodbye. One thing I love about being back home is sharing a room with my sister,” she says. She knows it’s time to start laying down a new life beyond netball. “I know that I would love to help people in some way, but I don’t know how yet. I just need to stop doubting myself,” she says. Dawson believes Tui will find her calling with the help of the game. “It’s one of the strengths of netball,” she says. “Helping women grow off the court as much as on it.” The 2026 ANZ Premiership starts on April 11, with all games played over weekends – two on Saturday, one on Sunday – and broadcast live and free-to-air on TVNZ+ and TVNZ 2.