Australian season helps strengthen Sunshine Girls’ World Cup bid
Published:Wednesday | July 26, 2023 | 12:10 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
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NATIONAL HEAD coach, Connie Francis is banking on the boost that will come with players who have plied their trade in the Australian Suncorp Super Netball League when the Netball World Cup in South Africa tips off for the Sunshine Girls on Saturday...
NATIONAL HEAD coach, Connie Francis is banking on the boost that will come with players who have plied their trade in the Australian Suncorp Super Netball League when the Netball World Cup in South Africa tips off for the Sunshine Girls on Saturday.
The Sunshine Girls will open their campaign against Sri Lanka on Saturday boosted by the confidence of good performances in Super Netball League. All of Shamera Sterling, Latanya Wilson, Romelda Aiken-George, Jhanielle Fowler, Shimona Nelson, Kadie-Ann Dehaney, and Jodi -Ann Ward can count themselves as having strong seasons in that league this year and go into the Netball World Cup with much momentum.
Those performances were further cemented in the Grand Final where Sterling and Wilson helped the Adelaide Thunderbirds to their first-ever title over Aiken-George’s New South Wales Swifts in what was a pulsating game.
For Francis, the play from the contingent further cemented the quality that she has in the squad as they prepare for a campaign that they hope will conclude with their first podium place in over a decade.
“To see the growth and discipline that they bring, I am at a loss for words. Especially that final. To see Shamera and Romelda and Latanya battle for their respective teams is great. It is a shame that one had to win,” Francis told The Gleaner.
With Sterling back in the squad for the first time since their Commonwealth Games silver medal run in August, 2022, Francis was pleased.
“I’m very happy that Jamaicans are showing that we have world-class players in the sense that Romelda has played on a Suncorp team that has won. Jhanielle has also played for a Suncorp team that has won. Now Shamera and Latanya have played on one. So it is a good feeling to know that ‘wi little but wi tallawah’. And we are taking the Tallawah to the big stage and really playing well every game, “ Francis said.
That big stage will include facing the likes of host country South Africa in their pool on Sunday.
As they go through the final phases of preparations for their opener, Francis says that they have learned the lessons of the past four years.