'Team not all about Aiken, Fowler-Reid'

When the Sunshine Girls embark on their Gold Rush mission in Australia next month, a majority of local supporters will look to the nation's two most prominent players and 2015 ANZ League joint MVPs, Romelda Aiken and Jahniele Fowler-Reid, to lead them to the promised land.

But although the two goal shooters are key members of the team, technical director Jill McIntosh believes the Sunshine Girls are much more than just Aiken and Fowler-Reid.

"We are very pleased to have Romelda and Jahniele, but we are a team of 12 players," the former Australian coach told The Gleaner. "The team is not all about Romelda and Jhaniele. We have a very good team, an even team, and all the players are training well and everything is on track," she insisted.

The Sunshine Girls defeated a men's team 53-38 at the National Indoor Sports Centre last Friday, and McIntosh was pleased with the challenge they got from their male counterparts, as well as all other aspects of the girls' game.

"Everything is on track. They are training well and they are all fit. We have covered all our bases. We just need a little bit of match play before we go into the final thing.

"We played the men's team, and they are very good competition. We played them last week, and we are playing this week (Friday), and that's good competition because they are tall and they are fast.

"The men are challenging, they are tall, they are fast and they jump, so they offer everything that we are going to be playing against in (Australia), so they are good competition for us. We had a good game against them. Yes, I am definitely pleased," she added..