Far North dominates Northern Rays team
CAIRNS Netball has proved itself a breeding ground of elite netball talent with the release of the upcoming Sapphire Series squads.
Northern Rays, the team which will represent Cairns, Mackay and Townsville in the new semi-professional league, was formally announced yesterday.
Half of the 10-member squad come from Cairns, with four from Townsville and one from Mackay, though the team will primarily be based in Townsville.
Cairns Netball’s operations manager Tanya Dearns said the five Rays members – Akayla Petersen, Chantelle Tikatau, Chloe Fredericksen, Jacqueline Dupuy and Michaela Kadlecek – as well as our two QUT Wildcats players in Claudia Philp and Rachelle Fa’anana proved there was a pathway from the Far North to the top.
“The fact we’ve got at least seven girls in Sapphire Series teams only strengthens that pathway, and it gives the girls coming through here hope of making it,” Dearns said.
“It’s a really good opportunity for those girls to show what they can do at that level.
“It’s pleasing for those girls to get that reward after the success of the Marlins last year.” Marlin Coast Marlins dominated the Queensland State Netball League last year.
The Marlins brand will live on in the upcoming Ruby Series, which serves as a feeder competition to the Sapphire Series, and Dearns said trials would soon be held for places in that team.
NORTHERN Rays coach Jillian Joyce is confident distance will not hinder her team’s championship ambitions after officially unveiling the Rays’ 2019 squad.
The Rays will feature players from Townsville, Cairns and Mackay playing in the inaugural Sapphire Series competition, which will replace the long-running Queensland State Netball League.
A total of four Townsville players – Ariana Wilcoxson, Brooke Williams, Chloe Cooper and Taylor Crossley – have been selected in the team that also features a Mackay player, who will be based in Townsville, and five Cairns players.
The Rays will be play their home games in Townsville and Mackay, starting with season tip-off on June 29 in Mackay, followed by the first Townsville game on July 20.
Training will be run as a decentralised program featuring separate training sessions for the Townsville and Cairnsbased players, and combined sessions.
“We’ll be using technology to overcome some of those challenges of distance, but we have a really robust training plan in place that sees us coming together,” Joyce said.
“We’re starting the season with an intense orientation and initiation camp of five days, and I think that will really set the tone and bring us together as a team.
“The program has them doing independent training, small group training and then coming together as a team on a regular basis, so it’s a challenge for me but I’m really excited by it. I’m really confident we have an innovative approach and I’m seeing it more as a great opportunity to lead the way in how team dynamics can be formed.”
The Rays replace the Magnetic North Steelcats as North Queensland’s top-tier netball team, although the Steelcats will remain as part of Queensland Netball’s second-tier Ruby Series competition.
Joyce said her squad had the talent to compete against the state’s best.
“We’ve got the cream of the top crop from the three teams (Steelcats, Cairns Marlins, Whitsunday Sharks), and I’m confident that when we combine them together they’ll be a fantastic group of players that will make the step up and thrive,” she said.
“I had the luxury of being able to see them as either their coach or opposition coach, and I’m well aware of the strengths they have and also how we combine those talents.”
Joyce said the new squad will adopt a “steady” approach to pre-season ahead of the 14round Sapphire Series.
“We’re very careful about the fact we don’t want the season to go too long,” she said.
“If we make the grand final, which we’re going to give a red-hot crack, we’ll be in this season until mid-October.”
Rays: Ariana Wilcoxson, Brooke Williams, Chloe Cooper, Taylor Crossley, Akayla Petersen. Chantelle Tikatau, Chloe Fredericksen, Jacqueline Dupuy, Michaela Kadlecek, Zoe McIntyre.