#20 Reflections

The World Cup is a distant memory. It was AMAZING! I’ve had lots of random thoughts before, during and after - not all of them make a heap of sense, some are problems I don’t have solutions to and some are just observations and talking points. If I don’t write them down though I may go crazy so here goes......

🏐 Surely with many of the top teams professional or semi professional they deserve more than amateur umpires. I don’t think any umpire did a bad job and it’s the players’ job to adapt if they are being pulled for infringements. However, a professional umpire will have more time to dedicate to the game and surely be ‘better’ than an amateur one.

🏐 I’ve only just caught up on the Sport Relief game - what a hoot! It had everything, a new successful shooting technique from Jennifer Saunders (you have to see it to believe it!) , awesome deadpan comedy from Coach Tamsin Greenway & sensational play from Oti Mabuse (Sign her up!) My favourite moment was a last quarter appearance from the most capped player of all time Irene Van Dyke and based on that I still think a ‘Legends’ game would have proven popular! What was Pamela Cookey & Sharni Layton  doing in the commentary box !?!  - i’d have  paid top dollar to see them two battle it out!

🏐 Fossils! This is the term given by World Cup winning Coach Noelene Tuarua for her ‘spine’ of  Silver Ferns players,  all of whom are over 30 years old. If you look at some of the other teams though you will see it may well have been the netball ‘year of  the fossils’! England’s defensive duo of Geva Mentor and Eboni Usoro-Brown, along with Rachel Dunn, are all in their mid thirties. Not forgetting Trinidad & Tobago’s Ronda John Hart who made Netball history with her 6th appearance at a netball World Cup. Whilst it is anticipated one of the 2019 legacies will be to inspire a new generation of Netballers, I reckon a large number of older generations may well be following the ‘fossils’ back onto  court!

🏐 Beware Australia! Read the above point again. Now consider that only two of the Diamonds squad are over 30. Captain Caitlyn Basset 31 & fellow shooter Caitlyn Thwaites 32. Australia started rebuilding after their one goal defeat to England at the Commonwealth Games. They have a year on the top teams in the new cycle and emerging  players like 24 year old  Sarah Klau already have a major tournament under their belt. They will be hurting and this all makes them VERY dangerous when the next major tournament comes up! (Only 3 years to the Birmingham Commonwealth Games!)

🏐 There are some in  Australia calling for an import CAP on players in the Suncorp Super Netball League. They believe imported players coming into the worlds best league is damaging the Aussie pathway and leading to the Diamonds ‘downfall’! I say look at the coaches before looking at the players! Noelene Taurua is Head Coach of the Sunshine Coach Lightning making match decisions week in and week out in the Australian domestic league. She also coached the whole of the Aussie attack who  lined  up against her NZ side in the final, during the 2018/2019 season! Tania Obst is the Adelaide Thunderbirds Head Coach but has been assisting Tracey Neville at the last two major tournaments where the Roses won gold and bronze respectively.

🏐 Would an available Stacey Francis have resulted in a different colour medal for 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🌹? It’s not something we’ll ever have the answer to but I think Layla’s injury hurt our challenge and Tracey Neville has eluded to that in post tournament interviews. Will we ever see Francis in a red dress again?

🏐 Something else to ponder, would England have been better off with a Serena Guthrie playing against Laura Langman’s in the lead up to the World Cup, rather than Mikki Austin’s? (No disrespect intended at all - hopefully you get my point?)

🏐 What will become Jamaica? Many ‘experts’ tipped Jamaica to be the dark horses and cause an upset at this World Cup! (I also predicted the same however I am far from expert lol!) Commentators all agree that they have the players they just need someone or something to bring them altogether. Jamaica Netball always seem to keep its cards close to its chest but if the newspaper reports are to be believed aspect another change of coach for the Sunshine Girls, sooner rather than later!

#19 Top Ten moments

1. ‘We want Dunn!’ It wasn’t just that the whole arena was in chorus - it was her utter disbelief & humble reaction, that got me. We won’t see her like on an international netball court again
2. Being stopped & asked if I’m ‘Debbie, who writes the Netball blog’?! World Cup made. 
3. #NDCClove meeting up with some of my former colleagues was awesome. Made me appreciate the amazing time we had and the awesome results we achieved, just a little bit more! Shame I didn’t see more of them.
4. Claire Balding’s closing speech was as awesome as it was inspirational. What a women: what a netball advocate! 
5. Jo Harten’s quick turn & long bomb with 0.5 seconds left of quarter 1 v South Africa. Sublime. I think every Roses fan in the arena knew it was going to be our day when that shot went in! 
6. Zimbabwe: the noise, the colour, the surprise package on a netball court. They were the team of the tournament and we were also staying in the same hotel! 4 teams from Africa  in the top 8 of the world: that’s global netball development! 
7. Pivoteers: the unsung heroes of the World Cup! They were everything they should have been and more. Thank you will never be enough! 
8. Pop up Prosecco bar at the arena. My type of event! Even better when they’re serving half pints of the stuff as they’d ran out of ‘proper’ glasses 😉My only disappointment was there was only 1! 
9. Netball family! Whether you were in the arena, piazza, fan park or around the city - you witnessed, on countless occasions old friends meeting up, reminiscing and sharing the World Cup excitement. Shout out to the #Neeks right here! 😘
10. England winning bronze. It wasn’t what we came for but as I have said on countless occasions there were 5 teams in with a shot of winning. We could have ended 5th. After the semi final I think bronze was a relief still to be celebrated. 

#18 How do I summarise that!?!

Wowsers.

To put into words the World Cup experience from a fans’ point of view is a daunting task and one I’m not sure my writing skills are up to!

The anticipation was palpable and on reflection the event had a lot to live up to: but live up to it, it most certainly did - and then some!

The Netball was everything it promised to be. From the surprise package and noise of Zimbabwe (they were in my hotel you know!)  to the hugely entertaining and exciting final and everything in between! We had ‘ohs’ ‘Ahhhss’ and ‘We want Dunn!’

OK, so it wasn’t the final England fans wanted or the majority of netball fans. There is now a question mark over whether the Netball world order really has changed and  I still can’t really bring myself to talk about the England v NZ Semi Final such is my heartbreak!

I said before the World Cup started though that one of five nations could win the coveted trophy - but equally one of five nations could also come 5th. England fans plight could be worse: we could be Jamaica!

The Pivoteers were just amazing - friendly, polite, helpful. Yes, everything they should be - but those 450 people gave up their time for free, paid for their own accommodation, food and drink. All for the love of the game. Everyone one of them outstanding and deserve a lot more appreciation than they probably got.

The atmosphere in the arena, the piazza, fan park and generally around the city was incredible. Everyone was talking about the netball - the locals, visitors, shop staff, pub staff, in hotels, in the town. Liverpool really does know how to welcome a global community!

At the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014 Netballers could pretty much walk around the city unbothered - it was probably just me asking for selfies back then to the amusement of some! I witnessed England players wearing hats and pulling the hoodies up over their heads this time round - not that they weren’t polite and friendly when approached though!

My own fan girling (read blog #11) went through the roof! It started with Netball legend Irene Van Dyke and finished with the very lovely Katherine Merry and Pamela Cookey. I took a bit of a ‘coaches’ route through the fan girling - spotting Rob Wright and Sara Bayman. (Who may well have been the player laughing at me in Glasgow!)

There were a few thousand teary eyed women listening to Claire Balding’s closing speech. Yes Claire it really did matter and it will continue to matter. Rousing was not the word, her words, delivery and passion were perfect.

The one thing that could have made it ever so slightly better was if  Claire had conducted the post final interview with Maria Falou. (!) A very strange choice out of all the NZ players they could have asked, I feel. It very nearly went all a bit pear shaped too.

I feel that the netball family completely undone ourselves this time! There were flags, there was face paint, wigs & costumes, there were Mexican waves and a noise like you’ve never heard. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, countless times. Incredible feels.

So now there is a very Netball World Cup shaped hole to fill and I’m not sure it’s going to be done! We’ll try with some podcast catching up and getting up ridiculously early this weekend for Suncorp Super Netball! I’ve still got some photo sorting and uploading to do and probably some more blog writing!

It’s going  to take a while to get over, certainly, but the memories and legacy will continue.

#17 Finals day

England v South Africa

I’m sure regular readers appreciate my honesty: I had my head in my hands today after 2 mins contemplating whether to leave! I, of course didn’t, it was a momentary lapse and I always had faith!

Saying that,  I still don’t think we were completely on song. It was the game northern hemisphere netball fans never really wanted but we were where we were and had to get on with it!

 I was absolutely dreading another ‘Glasgow 2014’ where you may remember we lost out to Australia and New Zealand by just 1 goal each, we were completely dejected and couldn’t get past Jamaica in the bronze medal match. I drank two bottles of wine without a glass,  immediately after and still have the remnants of the hangover!

Thankfully we were a very different Roses today and thanks to the quite incredible Jade Clarke we eased past a very good South Africa team to take the bronze medals. (In some lights bronze looks gold you know! 😉)

It wasn’t what the crowd or the Roses came for but we roared them right through to the finishing whistle & the noise was deafening!

It quite emotional towards the final whistle, with chants of ‘we want Dunn’ preceding a clearly humble Rachel Dunn donning the GS bib for potentially her last match in in a red dress. I suspect she’s not the only one although no announcements have been made at the time of writing!

Australia v New Zealand

The final was an altogether different affair, goal for goal through most of it but it was the experience of the Kiwis that shone through.

It didn’t look that way at the start mind you when Maria Falou uncharacteristically fumbled the ball three times. Nerves perhaps, there was certainly no devine  intervention  no matter what she said in her post match interview!

New Zealand were led impeccably by Centre Laura Langman. A stalwart Kiwi who was banned for playing for her country because of the league she chose to play her netball in. That was until nearly a year ago when Noeline Taurua came in to coach NZ after their disastrous Commonwealth Games & has completely turned things around.

Taurua has done the impossible. There is no other way of describing it. All coaches, no matter what sport, will be ‘hats off’ tonight. What an incredible achievement.

You must also take your hat off to Casey Kopua, out of retirement & back in squad after a nasty knee injury & becoming a Mum with 9mins on the clock in a World Cup Final, she takes an interception a player half her age would be proud of. Pure class.

So, as we’ve seen so many times before the game went to the wire but this time it was NZ who take home the coveted World Cup trophy. Frankly, they have a HUGE thank you to Noelene Taurua for that. I am certain it wouldn’t have happened with out her.

#16 Semi Finals

Australia v South Africa

When SA found Potgeiter home alone under the post with 5mins left I really thought that would be the turning point & SA would realise their dreams! How wrong I was, but what an incredible achievement & display by South Africa.

The crowd was absolutely amazing in the arena for the morning session. I’ve never seen or heard anything like it at a netball match - a phenomenal sight & sound!

As predicted I can’t really take more than 10 steps without bumping into someone I know! That’s what’s so incredible about this Liverpool World Cup, the netball family! Even people you don’t know you get chatting to!

For me, personally, it’s been absolutely AWESOME to see so many back to Netballers in Liverpool! People who I coached at sessions back in the day, completely fell in love with playing & supporting it seems! Someone had joked I have my own #neek army: they may not be wrong!

England v New Zealand

And so we move to the afternoon where hopes were high, the buzz was all about Harten & Housby and New Zealand spoilt the party.

What more can be said than you can’t start like that against New Zealand and expect to win.

The surge when Nat Haythornthwaite came on & Harten and Housby swapped was immense & if I thought the crowd went wild in the morning it was nothing compared to just before half time! It sent shivers down my spine! Half time came too early for the Roses I think.

For me the most disappointing thing was England didn’t play well. I would have taken a loss better (ish!) had both teams been at their best - it would mean the best team won in the truest sense of the world. From  Harten missing her first shot to Pitman just being in the way England just weren’t at the races. There were nothing between the teams in the stats, so imagine what we could have beaten them by! All ‘what ifs’ now though.

That’s not to take anything away from NZ though - they did a job on us and their zonal marking absolutely rankled the Roses. Hats off to Noeline Tuarua & Coaches, they did their homework good!

So it’s the 3/4 place match tomorrow - not one we wanted but I suspect it will be a few Roses last games in the red dress, so we must put our disappointment aside and cheer them on for the bronze medals.

It may well be a high point as the next few years will be a tough roller coaster ride for Roses fans - although, in my experience, when is it not!

I tell you one thing. I refuse to lose to SA tomorrow!

#15 H2 Sublime!

We’re at the business end of the World Cup & South Africa were, unfortunately for them,  next to witness the masterclass that is Housby & Harten! There are not enough superlatives to describe this relationship: I struggle to remember a more dynamic duo on a netball court and I certainly believe, on the basis of this competition, there isn’t one to compare in world Netball right now.

There is no doubt that South Africa were nervous and their penalty hit rate did not help their cause. I suspect Norma Plummer won’t have a lot to do to motivate her squad for the semi finals though. It’s the first time since 1995 they’ve made it to the last 4 and there were certainly glimpses of fabulousness. They will want to right today’s wrongs.

Personally I would start with Sigi Burger at GS. She really didn’t do anything much wrong when she came on (Air shot would have been nerves!) and gave Geva Mentor something more to think about. Whether she plays in the semi final or not I predict she is going to be a netball superstar in years to come.

Back to the Roses though and again there were a few rough patches but we ground them out and saw it through the other side - you have to do that to be Champions. We got our bench on again - exposing the less experienced players incase something drastic happens in the next two game (Yes I am that confident) and got to rest those that needed it.

Captain Fantastic Serena Guthrie was even wrapped in cotton wool towards the end. Guthrie seems to have had a target on her back throughout this tournament, it is she bothered? Too busy enjoying herself by the looks of it!

And that may well be the key. You will be hard pressed to find  a more relaxed, confident  team at the World Cup - especially one that is competing for the top placings. Harten’s last second edge of circle goal in Q1, her no look pass to Housby under the post & Jade Clarke’s pin point bullet to Dunn from the centre third doesn’t come from a team with the world of expectations on their shoulders.

I’m back off up to Liverpool tomorrow & looking forward to seeing H2 and their team mates storming it against New Zealand. .

#14 Jamaica

I was nervous before the Jamaica game today, I won’t lie. England Roses have looked slick but have been largely untested, in this World Cup.

Regular readers will know I have also tipped Jamaica to cause a big upset and I was dreading that prediction coming back to bite me on the bum! Thankfully, like many of my netball predictions, I was wrong!

When you’re nervous you do tend to over analyse and I wondered negatively how much Layla Guscoth’s injury would impact the squad, if another injury would slash our chances and what would happen if we did (say it quietly) lose. All that is largely out of my control, some even out of the Roses control, so I gave  myself a good talking to, put the kettle on and settled down for a cracking game!

I was slightly disappointed we let them back into the game after going 10-5 up in the first quarter - but this is elite sport remember and we know, probably more than any other team, that Jamaica should not be underestimated. For years they have been a bit of a bogey team for England.

There are plenty who will disagree with me ( most of my Coaching Network for a start!) but I thought   Housby & Harten showed their class today. Taking the knocks, keeping going, remaining patient & controlled - what u need from winning shooters! I did wander at one point whether Dunn would be introduced to be more of a ‘target’ but I think Housby & Harten grinding through the rough times and playing with beaming smiles when it went oh so slick, will only benefit the Roses in the latter stages. 

Our attack, overall, played clever. Remaining positive, drawing the contact & frustrating Jamaica. I think we’re very lucky in the Roses squad at the moment, our attack know any of our defensive line can turnover ball if needed - what a team! 

Individually I thought Geva Mentor had to be at her best today and so it proved. Fowler may well have 100% shooting stats (I mean absolute kudos for her at this level!) but she needs the ball to do damage and I felt Geva had the better of her today and confused the feeders enough to have an incredible impact. 

Captain fantastic Serena Guthrie also impressed. She did everything you would want as a Captain and then some! For me, for what it’s worth, she was Player of the Match and we will need her to recreate that performance when we come up against South Africa, Australia and  New Zealand. Well, if we win gold we’ve got to beat them all! 

A word about Jamaica. They will obviously hurt, they’ve got very little chance of a top four placing now and with their line up they would expect to be in the semi finals. 

And there I think, you have the problem: no one can expect anything at this World Cup. The hard work, the research and the infrastructure need to be there to support the players - not to mention the attitude from the players, to the coaching team right through to all the support staff. 

Slightly over exaggerating, but it seems every time I go on Twitter there is another ‘drama’ in the Jamaica Camp - whether it’s a new coach, Nelson ‘injured’ despite playing every week in the Suncorp Super Netball League or Romelda Aitken’s lowly shooting stats also in the Suncorp league. Are the Jamaican’s just too laid back in their approach in this post QUAD series netball era!? Is that their undoing? 

We turn our attention to South Africa later this week who should prove more of a test than Trinidad & Tobago. I see changes in the T&T match, with no disrespect to them whatsoever,  I think we’ll see Fran Williams at some point to rest Eboni, who probably didn’t expect quite as much Court time had Layla not been injured. Despite Harten & Housby’s immense game today I think we will see Dunn & potentially Haythornthwaite too. 

South Africa are riding high after their win against Jamaica and seem to be most fans ‘second team’. I’d like them to do well too - but not at the expense of the Roses! 

#13 Opening Ceremony

I’m writing this on the way back from Liverpool where I’ve spent a mad, but awesome, 24 hours and to be honest may be a little bleary eyed!

I always knew that the netball community would be on fine form at the Netball World Cup 2019. We’ve had a long time to look forward to it and obviously the Commonwealth Gold added to the anticipation! 

The atmosphere in the stadium, in the fan zone and around the city was phenomenal - you can spot a Netballer a mile off and everyone was laughing, smiling and chatting away like they’d known each other for years! We made friends with some Aussies from Queensland in the toilet queue, couldn’t walk more than 10 paces in the stadium without bumping into someone we knew and even Irene Van Dyke stopped for a chat! (Absolutely made my day.....week......year!) 

I’m not going to lie I was too busy catching up with old colleagues (#NDCClove) to see the full Opening Ceremony! When we did get there, after finding the Prosecco bar of course, the show looked great and only added to the anticipation of it all!

Jamaica v Fiji was first up and wasn’t quite as one sided as the score line suggests. (85-29) There were a lot of mistakes from Jamaica and, in my opinion, looked very beatable! (Perhaps that’s just wishful thinking!) I realise though that they also wouldn’t have come out of first gear! 

I will admit to having a quick wander to the other end of the stadium to Court 2 when Sigi Burger came on for South Africa v Trinidad & Tobago. Sigi is a bit of a favourite and it was great to see her represent after being bought into the SA squad late on. 

The real highlight though was England v Uganda - the roar from the crowd when the Roses came on Court was spine tingling! Literally made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. 

Specially mention to the 20 or so Ugandan fans sat behind the goal. They did not stop singing from starting to finishing whistle! 

I am looking forward to rewatching the match - especially the sending off of the Uganda Centre. It was an interesting one in the stadium as we obviously can’t hear the umpires - although their body
language said it all! 

When the offending player eventually went to the bench for the second time, she was high fived by the whole of the coaching bench. Rather than this being a malicious action I think this showed Uganda’s naivety at this level. It was a shame really that the sending off happened.  Not that I’m condoning any poor behaviour on court, of course. 

I was pleased for Jo Harten that not only did she receive her 100th Cap, the response from the crowd was amazing. I imagine she will never forget that. I do think that as an organisation we need to be better at recognising such achievements. She is a truly remarkable ambassador for netball with a global reach. 

So, that was my first experience of Liverpool World Cup 2019. Other observations include

- shout out to the Prosecco girls at the stadium. They worked bloody hard and it wouldn’t surprise me if we go back next week and there were a few more Prosecco bars popped up! Know your audience M&S Arena!
- Zimbabwe are staying in our hotel and we really need to find out when they have breakfast so we go at a different time. They seem to have a small army with them!
- Pivoteers are immense, all of them were in great spirits & definitely added to the sense of occasion. They deserve more than an afterthought page 96 in the official programme though!
- M&S arena is an awesome place to watch netball! From what I could see there is not a ‘bad’ seat in the house. We also have lots more healthy options food wise than other netball venues. Copper Box is a particular eye roller!

Anyway, back to reality, fighting my toddler for the remote so I can watch England v Scotland rather than Mr Tumble! Can’t wait until Friday when I’m back in Liverpool for finals weekend! 

#12 ‘Twas the night before Christmas

There is not an adjective in the world that can describe my insane excitement right now!

The only thing I can possibly compare it to is when I was a little girl waiting for Father Christmas to come with my new bike / dolls house or Care Bear! It’s a mixture of anticipation, extreme excitement and fear.

Yes, you read that right, fear.

After all what if I hadn’t been a good girl all year round and didn’t receive that bike with the basket? I think we all know what I am saying without me typing it!

There’s the short term issue of drinking two bottles of wine and having a terrible hangover circa 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. There is also the long term problem of the potential loss of funding - although with Nike on board and our Roses in Vogue this month, I am hoping that is no longer an issue.

As previously reported, and not just by me (!) this is the most hotly anticipated World Cup of all time! There are literally 5 teams who could win it - gone are the days of the Southern Hemisphere stranglehold on global netball! We have a new world netball order!

I’m lucky enough to be flying up tomorrow (Friday morning) for the opening ceremony and England v Uganda. Then I travel back up next weekend for sessions 17,18,19,20 - the big ones!

I’ve listened with interest how the Aussies are now saying England are favourites and the pressure is on them! Australia are still ranked Number 1 in the world though and interestingly England are ranked 3rd in the latest IFNA rankings!

My expectations are England are going to win. Maybe that’s more hope than expectation.

Perhaps I, along with other Roses fans suffering with over - excitement (!) need to remember, it was the long term aim to get to the 2019 final. They didn’t hide it, that’s always been the goal since Neville took over. Last year was a bonus. A glorious, incredible bonus. Let’s get to that 2019 World Cup Final and see what happens! Until then, I will do my best to put a lid on it and contain my excitement!

If you’re enjoying my World Cup blogs and want to keep up to date with my World Cup exploits i’ll be tweeting throughout @netballcoachnow

#11 I’m a bit old for fan girling, but.......

It’s a World Cup, a home World Cup and the most highly anticipated and exciting netball World Cup, well, of all time actually and I’m not exaggerating!

Netball is most definitely on the rise, we have so more much media interest and sponsors like Nike on board. I never thought i’d see it to tell you the truth.

I remember the bottles of Evian that my Mum used to bring home from Intercounties and the, now embarrassing, but very accepted in the 90s, Sun newspaper sponsorship of a County team ( I think!?!)  who appeared in the paper in their netball knickers complete with Sun logo! Thank goodness we’ve evolved! 😉

I’m ecstatic for my two daughters aged 6 & 1, as they will grow up in a time where we have strong female role models, not just in netball, or even sport but in society in general.

I couldn’t be more proud that my eldest will soon (hopefully) be discussing the merits of Helen Housby at Goal Attack, like she’s been going on about Lioness Lucy Bronze recently!

I went to support her in a sports-themed sponsored walk a couple of weeks ago and was amazed (pleasantly so) that there were nearly as many ‘Roses’ costumes as there were Harry Kane’s!

It’s absolutely stonking that at a time where we have a national epidemic of obesity, Sport England tell us drop out rates of female teenagers from sport is at a high, female empowerment is all the buzz and talking about mental health is less of a taboo, our young girls and boys will be seeing and hearing from netball players, coaches, umpires, broadcasters and volunteers. I look forward to them being inspired to reach for the stars and start breaking down those glass ceilings!

I’ve always been a big advocate of netball being life changing. It’s not an underestimate to predict this World Cup will have an impact that will be far reaching and actually, unmeasurable.

The Roses, Diamonds,  Silver Ferns, Spar Proteus and Sunshine Girls don’t just inspire the youth though!

I’ve seen first hand the impact programmes such as Back to Netball and Walking Netball has had: my Walking Netballers  started as part of the national pilot 3 years ago and now regularly travel to Superleague events, persuade the local pub landlord to switch the TV to netball on Monday nights and are waiting, with anticipation, for their World Cup merchandise.

Social media obviously plays its part and it definitely makes my day when a Netball ‘great’ retweets or takes time to message me! Cat Tuiviti retweeting and offering support during a pretty tough time during ACL rehab pushed me to do an extra set of reps and get up the next day to do it all over again! (No one knows ACL rehab like those who have done it themselves!)

At the Glasgow Commonwealth Games I was thrilled to attend the England Supporter Club reception where I had a few too many wines and am embarrassed to say called Maggie Jackson, Collette, even though i’ve met them both on several occasions! Mortified was not the word when I woke the next morning!

I did get quite a few selfies with players, past & present, and my all time favourite netball Coach Anna Stembridge. I wasn’t even slightly embarrassed, I’m sure the wine helped, but also there were no children at the reception so it wasn’t quite as frowned upon! (Or I didn’t perceive it to be quite so frowned upon!)

I guess when you have been supporting and involved in Netball for as long as I have (I’m 38 now and can’t remember a time Netball was not in my life!) the Roses players are rock stars!

So, having spent a lot of money on tickets, transport & hotels for Liverpool I am determined to enjoy
myself!

That means a special mission to get my ‘Leap’  booked signed by Geva Mentor, as many selfies with Roses players as possible and even a few with players from other nations!

Now, I know Sharni Layton is part of the broadcast team I will be staking her out too!

I make no apologies for fan girling netball superstars at the age of 38. If I could have done it when I
was 10 I would have done!

#10 Lazy Netball journalism

I have a new pet hate: lazy netball journalism.

It actually started 5 years ago now (wow was it really that long!)  with that Telegraph piece comparing Netballers to dainty flamingoes by that columnist who clearly hadn’t done any in depth research and didn’t have a clue what she was talking about! (The article is here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/10851468/Obesity-crisis-How-playing-netball-is-making-your-daughter-fat.html )

I guess it’s become more common because Netball has been given a higher media profile. Which is definitely not something to moan about!

The most recent case is the Sky Sports press release announcing Ama Agbeze & Sharni Layton to the Sky Netball presenting team for the World Cup - apparently swapping the ‘defensive quarter’ for the commentary box! I corrected them through Twitter obviously 🙄 and ‘quarter’ was hastily changed to ‘third’! Oh, how I wished i’d taken a screen shot! To add insult to injury I didn’t even get a thank you! 😉

Now, I will admit to more than a vested interest: I trained as a journalist and indeed did a ten year stint writing the weekly netball page for local newspaper The News. (Original title, I agree!) I may have even made a ‘proper’ career out of it had coaching not come a calling!

(Little shout out to Portsmouth -based The News here. The weekly netball page has been going for more than 10 years now, great foresight from the Sports Editor and team and testament to the strength of the netball community in the area!)

I have discussed in previous blogs that Netball has evolved, sometimes, it seems, at the speed of light: but our partnerships, infrastructure and dare I say the National media have not really kept up pace

I have made the point on numerous occasions that just because you are a great coach or player, doesn’t make you a great pundit or commentator. If I had, as threatened, played a drinking game, every time a certain coach said ‘erm’ or ‘how do I say!?’ live on TV, I would have been in local A&E having my stomach pumped!

I do tend to put televised netball matches on mute sometimes and long for the nostalgic days of Anita Navin’s dulcet tones. Now there is a netball expert who knows what she is talking about!

Something that really annoys me (and I know other netball fans too as it is often commented on in social media!) is commentators using ‘points’ instead of ‘goals’. For example ‘what a great point from Jo Harten, from the edge of the circle’ or ‘Vixens lead the Firebirds by 6 points at the half way mark’. Usually used by those less experienced in the Netball world - but still, a quick conversation with those with more netball knowledge before broadcast, would see this completely eradicated!

There are, obviously I hope, exceptions to these rules.

Caroline Barker comes across as an absolute consummate professional who seems to go above & beyond with research and preparation. In my eyes (and ears) Barker’s commentary, along with Sara Bayman, on the Commonwealth Games 2018 Final, was as near to perfect as you could possibly get. (As I get misty eyed again!)

I have followed Denise Evans on Twitter for as long as I can remember and let out a silent ‘yes’ & fist pump when she announced she was walking through the BBC doors for the first time as an employee in the role of Netball journalist! I believe, Denise, took on Manchester Thunder’s media role for years and it seemed ‘just desserts’ that she should rise to the giddy heights of the BBC, a leading example  for youngsters who can can dream of career in netball journalism!

I listened with interest and surprise recently to the Netball show’s chat with Hazel Irvine - who will be the BBC’s anchor for the Netball World Cup coverage. Hazel told of her history with the sport and the fact she actually covered the 1995 World Cup in Birmingham! She clearly knows her Netball and I look forward to watching and listening to her in less than a couple of weeks time!

There is a simmering debate in Australia, at the moment, about the role of male commentators in the game. For me, it’s not about gender it’s about who can call the game fairly & squarely, in an entertaining and informative way.

It’s one reason I am personally gutted Suncorp Super Netball’s Sue Gaudion hasn’t been snapped up for the World Cup. She is first class and broadcasters have missed a trick not sending her to
Liverpool.

So, what I say now to all commentators, journalists and netball pundits I say from the heart in the best interests of netball!

PLEASE Do your research, be prepared and know your stuff.

Sky / BBC give your experts some training so the audience isn’t baffled / annoyed at too many ‘erms’, bad pronunciation of netball superstars’ names and long boring pauses!

Netball is a fantastic, technically amazing and exciting sport. There are some real characters in and around the courts and this is going to be the most exciting World Cup EVER.

 It deserves the very best commentary and journalism you can offer!