EC giants dream up in smoke
Aloes lose with big margins but performance impresses captain
IT MAY have been the end of the road for the Eastern Cape Aloes in the Brutal Fruit Netball Premier League but they walk away with their heads held high after finishing in sixth place ranking higher than they did last season.
The provincial team was hammered over the weekend when they faced their fierce opponents Golden Fireballs of Gauteng who beat them by a whooping 68-24 on Friday at the Mangaung Indoor Sports centre in Bloemfontein.
As if that was not enough Aloes were thrashed by defending champions Free State Crinums 77-28.
Aloes captain Nosiphiwo Goda said she is proud of her team despite not reaching the semifinal spot they had targeted earlier on in the season.
“We have improved greatly from last year, I am happy with our performance it may not be what we wanted from the beginning but it is still an improvement and we will just see how next season will go,” the captain said.
However, Goda expressed her concerns on some of the underlying issues regarding her team’s slow improvement.
Goda said having players in two different cities is a strain for the team as half of the players in the Aloes squad are from Port Elizabeth while the other half are from East London.
She said this makes it difficult for the team to train because of the travelling and other logistics.
“PE and East London are far apart and trainings during the season are difficult to take place because we have players that are still students and some that are workers so its difficult to take offdays for training,” she said.
The captain added that in other provinces this is not the case as the players are closer together in one university.
The Aloes lost out on a grand prize of an all expenses paid trip to New Zealand as this will be clinched by this year’s champs, which includes a chance to play international netball as the winners will feature in this year’s Super Club Championships.
The runners up will walk away with a cash prize valued at R150 000.
If numbers are anything to go by, it seems the finals could be between Jaguars of Gauteng and Flames of North West.
These two teams have both won eight out of their nine games and they rank in first and second place respectively.
However, one could never be too sure in this sport as anything can happen. Speaking of which three time champion title holders, Free State Crinums, finished in fifth place this year.
If it had not been for their captain, Maryka Holtzhausen coming back, after an eight month injury break, to lead her team to victory after losing three of their games in succession earlier in the season the team might not even have made it this far.
This coming weekend will see the season wrapping up with a show of performance from four teams namely: Jaguars of Gauteng, Flames of North West, Golden Fireballs of Gauteng and Southern Stings of Western Cape.