Marvette Anderson contemplates getting sacked
LIVERPOOL, England — Jamaica’s head coach Marvette Anderson says she accepts that her head could be on the chopping block after the Sunshine Girls disastrously missed out on a semi-final place at the 2019 Netball World Cup.
“It is what it is. There’s nothing I can do about that [losing the coaching job],” she told journalists in the mixed zone after Jamaica continued their push for fifth place with a 67-36 win over Scotland at M&S Bank Arena yesterday.
“Decisions have to be made, [and] whatever those decisions are I can live by them. I think we gave it our all. Being on tour is a tough task, it’s really hard,” Anderson said.
Anderson was one-half of the co-coaching tandem with former national player Sasher-gaye Henry when Jamaica won bronze at the 2018 Commonwealth Games behind champions England and hosts Australia.
She was head coach of the Sunshine Girls outfit that beat an under-strength England team 3-0 at home last October.
The world number two-ranked Jamaicans opened the World Cup with wins over Fiji and Trinidad and Tobago. But thereafter they imploded.
They lost 52-55 to world number five South Africa on Sunday, and went down 48-56 to thirdranked England a day later.
Results since then mean England and South Africa will advance to the semi-finals from Group G of the second stage of the preliminaries.
The Jamaicans, whose last medal at the World Cup was the bronze won in 2007, have not missed the semi-finals since 1995.
In yesterday’s Jamaica Observer publication, Netball Jamaica President Paula-daley Morris, in Liverpool watching the travails of the team, had said a coaching shake-up is likely after the customary tournament review is carried out.
Captain and goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler, who has been terrific from an individual standpoint, conceded that there has been a breakdown in “structure”, while addressing the possibility of a post-tournament fallout.
“You can have some of the most amazing players on the team [but] if there is no structure it’s not going to be an easy walk in the park.
“I’m looking forward to see what’s going to happen after this. I don’t know if it’s my head that is going to roll, but let’s look and see what’s going to happen at the end of this tournament.
“To be honest, what is best for the team, I hope that that’s the decision that is made,” the 29-yearold superstar shooter said during the mixed-zone interview.
Fowler, who plays professionally in Australia, added: “Most definitely, the coaching does have something to do with the performance of the team. Of course!
“There are a lot of things that we need to do as an international team to step it up in some areas in order to compete with the likes of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.”
In response to a question regarding the possibility of being stripped of the captaincy for her role in the leadership set-up, Fowler said she remains committed to the team in whatever capacity.
“No, I’m not worried because if I’m removed as the captain, and if I’m still with the Sunshine Girls, I will still play that supporting role as a player.
“As the captain, I may not have done my best but I tried to do my best, there is room where I could have improved,” she said.
The towering goal shooter said the mood has lifted in the camp since the back-to-back defeats.
“A couple days ago we were really low, glum; there was this melancholic feeling going around the camp. I did my best to talk to them to say ‘let’s get up, let’s get going and we have to just do that for ourselves. We have to make Jamaica proud nonetheless and we haven’t finished’.
“So we’ve been smiling for the past couple of hours, and we know that we have each other’s back,” she said.