Sunshine Girls still have work to do, says Anderson
JAMAICA’S SENIOR netball head coach Marvette Anderson said there is still a lot more work to be done ahead of next year’s World Championships despite their recent 3-0 series victory over rivals England Roses at the National Indoor Sports Centre.
The Sunshine Girls, who are ranked fourth in the world, two places below the Roses in the rankings, recorded an impressive 58-43 win in the final game to whitewash their opponents on Monday.
The Jamaicans, who dominated the series, won the opening game 55-43 before clinching the series 58-39 in the second encounter.
Anderson said that the Sunshine Girls played well throughout the series against the Roses, who were without a number of key players, including top defender Geva Mentor.
“It was a good performance from the ladies because I think it showed that they have guts, they have resilience, and they know the task that is at hand,” said Anderson.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg because they have the World Cup to prepare for, and so we are not going to take this as ‘yes we are ready’ but just use it as a marker to assess where we are now and what we need to do in the future,” Anderson said.
“Whatever practice you can get from the top-ranked teams in the world, you are going to make use of it, and so after this series, we will be able to assess where our players are and what we need to do to perform on the world stage,” she said.
The Sunshine Girls were without goal shooter Romelda Aiken for the series.
Anderson added that there were too many unforced turnovers in the series from Sunshine Girls and that this is something that they would be working a lot on moving forward.
“It is about keeping possession of the ball and being disciplined when we have that ball in our hands,” said Anderson. “It is work a in progress, but we are going to continue plugging at it and see how best we come out at the end.”