🏐 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!
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