Quad Series round up

The inaugural netball Quad series wrapped up on Thursday evening in front of a packed house at Claudelands Arena in Hamilton. The Australian Diamonds took out the series but however couldn't manage a win in their last game against our Silver Ferns. Thought I would give everyone my thoughts of the series and do a bit of a wrap up.

The series came about through Netball NZ and Australia with the aim of helping England and South Africa develop there games with playing against the two best netball nations in the world. Personally I believe it was a great series and it would need to be played on a regular basis to really start to bridge the gap between the nations. I can't actually remember the last time the Silver Ferns played South Africa outside of a World Champs or Commonwealth games tournament and that highlights the need to include them in more series and test matches.

The gap has closed so that England and Jamaica constantly have tight tussles however below that their is still a major gap. During the competition this was highlighted by South Africa and their high level of turnovers as well as being left behind in the physical contest of international netball.

I personally had high expectations from the English girls and thought we could be in for a possible upset during the series.  Although without Geva Mentor, Sonia Mkloma and Jade Clarke they still had a pretty experienced line up. Eboni Beckford-Chambers and Jo Harten both having a spent time playing in the ANZ championships meant they both had gained experience playing against both the Australian and New Zealand players.

However England as a whole were a huge disappointment. For a number of years they have had a young team and have been slowly building up their experience and showing glimpses of brilliance however this was short lived. The rebuilding and young excuse can't be used as in this instance.

GK - Eboni Beckford-Chambers

GD - Ama Abaeze

WD - Serena Guthrie

C - Sara Bayman

WA - Sasha Corbin

GA - Pamela Cookey

GS - Jo Harten

Aside from Sasha Corbin in the wing attack position the rest of the team have played against Australia and New Zealand on several occasions and as previously mentioned two players have gone on step further and had ANZ Championship experience.

The turnovers made were school girl at times and were not what you would expect from an international team. It seemed like the girls didn't have a lot of drive and determination so perhaps lacking a strong on court leader was the problem. It would be great to see an ANZ Championship team snap up Serena Guthrie as she was probably their most consistent player of the series and really showed some great skills and a good ability to read the game.

South Africa were not expected to raise much of a challenge against the big guns but were out their to have a good crack at England. Their captain Amanda Mynhardt had spent a season playing netball on the north shore in Auckland under the tutelage of former silver fern coach Yvonne Willering and has spoke of how valuable this experience has been for her netball "it opened my eyes to a whole new world of netball. Looking back a year ago and the way I play now I feel like a better player and I also look at the game differently".

It was a fantastic initiative by the netball administrators and certainly one I hope will be around for a few more years, its a great way to improve the lower ranked nations as we build towards CWG and WC.