Coach bats for her girls

Head coach Norma Plummer (above) has stood up in defence of her players after the SA netball team opened their 2018/19 Quad Series campaign with two crushing defeats.

While the Proteas produced fine performances throughout the 2017/18 Quad Series, they were unable to mount challenges over the last week, being handed convincing defeats against world champions Australia (61-44) and New Zealand (61-37).

Plummer, however, felt criticism back home was unfair, insisting they had taken a significant knock heading into the four-nation campaign after arriving in Australasia without experienced centre-court players Erin Burger, Izelle Griesel and Precious Mthembu.

Turning out with a depleted squad, they battled to get the ball to their strikeforce, and when they did, they were inconsistent up front.

“South Africa don’t understand just how tough it is for Protea players who are playing against countries with far superior (domestic) competitions,” said Plummer, who guided her native Australia to two world titles in 2007 and 2011.

Though the country had a semi-professional competition – the Netball Premier League – Plummer felt the domestic campaign needed to be expanded. Alternatively, more SA players needed to base themselves overseas in order to compete regularly at the highest level.