Cream of SA netball gather for nationals

THE netball season continues with the Spar National Championships starting today in the Ugu Sports Complex in Margate on the KZN south coast, just a week after Netball World Cup which was won by Australia.

There are a few changes made for this year’s tournament. Instead of regions participating in the national championships, it will now be provinces.

There will be two sections (A and B) for both the Seniors and the Under-21s.

“As Netball South Africa, we’ve decided to change the format because we wanted to give the provinces more responsibility and make sure that they are more in charge of their district,” said Mami Diale on behalf of Netball South Africa (NSA)

Diale said they were expecting 27 senior teams but only 11 teams registered.

Gauteng province coach Jenny van Dyk, whose team won the tournament last year, welcomed the changes.

“With all new things, it takes time to get used to them and to get things to run smoothly. To me, we play the Brutal Fruit tournament then our provincial league and then the national championships.

“This gives us an opportunity to play in the Gauteng provincial championships because there’s not enough time for the girls to play during the year and compete at the highest level, so we make sure they play by participating in the Gauteng provincial tournament prior to the national championships,” said Van Dyk.

“We get together and play against the Gauteng teams then select our team there. From that point on we start to train together as a group. It definitely allows more talented girls to play,” added Van Dyk.

Meanwhile, Blanche de la Guerre said that NSA will announce their plans about national coach Norma Plummer soon.

Seanokeng Molosankwe is in Margate courtesy of Spar.