Double international Anna Scarlett has not given up her dream of playing a role in a world championship-winning Silver Ferns – but admits there would need to be a change of coach for it to happen.

The 26-year-old, preparing for the New Zealand Open beach volleyball tournament starting in Auckland tomorrow, said being dropped by coach Ruth Aitken on the eve of the 2007 world champs “will always be a real sore spot in my sporting career”.

The ultra-competitive defender took her axing personally, believing she had trialled well enough to stake a claim for a starting place as hosts New Zealand unsuccessfully defended the title they won in Jamaica four years earlier.

“My goal was to be in the starting line-up and win the world champs in 2007. I desperately wanted that. I won gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, I was at the 2003 world champs but didn’t get on the court, so I really wanted to be a key player. It wasn’t to be … I didn’t really know where I stood in that team.”

The naming of that world championship squad was a confusing time for Scarlett as Aitken had clearly lost confidence in her, although it seems the feeling was mutual.

Asked whether the coach would have to change before she attempted an international comeback, Scarlett paused before deciding to dispense with diplomacy: “I think so, yes.

“A few things might need to change for me to go back but I do miss the sport. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t.”

Scarlett believed the skills and strategies she had learned through beach volleyball would make her a better netballer. But she was not so sure if netball’s authorities were doing such a good job with developing pathways for young talent.

“Because netball’s New Zealand’s No 1 women’s sport it concerns me a lot that the development is so limited.

“The ANZ Championship is awesome but there’s so many imports, there’s so many older players being brought back in, there’s no young players getting exposure because none of the franchises can afford to have a development squad underneath,” she said.

“There’s no tournament a step below the ANZ champs from where you could pull players.

“Club netball is nowhere near the standard required to step up and the NPC is too small to get the necessary development.

“It’s really concerning. I mean, Temepara George retired for how many years and they had to bring her back because they had nobody to replace her.”

George pulled out of the Ferns in 2007 before returning last year.

Scarlett believed shooting combinations could prove tricky when Irene van Dyk finally retired.

Scarlett, who played for Auckland-Waitakere in last year’s NPC, has her sights firmly set on the London Olympics with beach volleyball, but would weigh up her sporting options after the Games.
Sourced via nzherald.co.nz

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Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS), sponsors of the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA) Open League, will be offering three scholarships to the three top players in this year’s competition.

The scholarships are valued at $50,000 each and tenable at the G.C. Foster College in St Catherine.

Earl Jarrett, general manager of JNBS, made the announcement on Saturday during the competition’s colourful opening ceremony at the Leila Robinson Courts.

He also said his company will be providing a scholarship for a coach to do a coaching course at the University of Technology (UTech).

“We believe that as a corporate entity we have a responsibility to support initiatives which will help our young people who have excelled, to share their experiences with others and to become good role models,” said Jarrett.

“You should be proud of your growth and the development of netball over the years. We are all aware that netball has always been a dominant sport in Jamaica,” said Jarrett, whose company is sponsoring the competition for the 16th year.

“It (netball) is an integral part of sports programmes in many schools and interest in the sport is evident at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels,” Jarrett said.

The sponsorship package runs to the tune of $1.5 million, which doesn’t include gear and match balls.

Marva Bernard, president of the JNA, said her association was grateful for the sponsorship.

“We are delighted to have Jamaica National back with us because sponsorship is very hard to come by in these challenging times,” said Bernard.

“They are certainly going to get value for their money because the matches are very exciting and the league is also well organised,” she said.

Meanwhile defending champions Jamalco recorded their fourth straight win in this year’s competition, notching an easy 51-9 victory over Speg ‘B’.

In the day’s other games, former champions Tivoli Gardens beat Greenwich Town 85-2, Waulgrovians ‘A’ thrashed Omega ‘A’ 61-8, Windalco whipped Boulevard Baptist 54-11, Ebony Strikers stopped Jetsetters ‘B’ 41-13 and Alpha defeated Hampshire ‘C’ 33-13.
Sourced via jamaica gleaner.com

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In the eyes of a spectator a goal in netball may look easy but for the players in the pitch it comes through sweat, tight marking, abuse, endurance and cautions.For a shooter they don’t count the goals they score because they are many but they have to put up with shoving and rough play from their opponents as well. The game is as tough as any other sport.
One notable goal shooter is Selibe Phikwe Prisons player Mado Mabedi Gaopelo. Born in Selibe Phikwe in 1987 the netballer is arguably one of the best players to ever have played for the club. She is this week’s Voice Star and she shared a few words with Monnakgotla Mojaki.
Q. When did you start playing netball?
I started playing while at Ledumang Senior Secondary doing my Form Four and Five. My teachers, who noticed my height, invited me. I was not interested at first because I felt awkward being the only tall girl among short girls.

Q. Does anybody else play sport in your family who may have motivated you?
I am from a family of four with three boys. They play social football and they encourage me though I am the eldest. I think they love it when I play

Q. How does your height help you when you play?
The advantages are there for all to see. Usually my teammates will play high balls and I just snatch them over the heads of the opponents. I also find it easy to stretch and catch balls that seem to be a bit far from where I am. This has helped me score a lot of goals.

Q. Your team Prisons seems to blow hot and cold, why is that?
That is a good observation but it is not like we are not serious or our level of commitment is low. As you know that we are not full-time professionals some of us are either held-up at school or work commitments. I can tell you that when we are all here we can play and we challenge any team. We are a strong team and improving, we have youngsters so that is why we are the most dangerous team.

Q. You play with a knee cap most of the time, is it because you are injured or you just love attention?
Ha ha ha, it is an injury my brother. I got injured in Malawi playing in the annual CUCSSA games. After that I never had rest until now so I have to play for the team while recovering. There is no time to heal first but I will be fine very soon and play to my best.

Q. What is it that you love or hate about playing netball?
I like socialising so in the game I do that quite often. I meet a lot of people during games and I travel a lot, which is part of me. I love travelling and visiting new places so netball affords me that opportunity. The hate side is painful, I get frustrated when management don’t do things in the right manner whether deliberate or by mistake. For starters we play most games in the southern part of the country. It will be nice to play them in the north so that we also get home ground advantage and the developing of the game will be equal.

Q. Who is your favourite netball player and coach and explain why you rate them highly?
That’s a tough one, there is a lady called Ogone. She plays for BDF Tasc. She is a fighter and gives her best when playing. She plays in any position with the same level of commitment. As for the coach I think Abednico is the best. His team is disciplined. Most people he coaches don’t end up just being ordinary they progress and that means he is good.

Q. What do you do prior to crucial games?
Usually there is nothing special except to train very hard with my colleagues. When I get time alone I normally analyse the opponents and see how I can exploit them. I do my game plan alone and see how I can work to my advantage. The night before the game I enjoy relaxing alone and having enough rest and sleep. No superstitions though.

Q. Why do you think Selibe Phikwe teams don’t do well and maybe even northern teams?
Perhaps our coaches are not that good. The other thing is we hardly train as a team because of the reason I gave above. Should we have time together we can conquer the country. Maybe the level of interest in the game has also deteriorated.

Q. What is your ambition?
Netball is a big sport, so I want to see myself playing for the senior national team one of these days. Playing at that level will mean being spotted by scouts from other countries so I can play abroad.

Q. Do you prefer indoor facilities or outdoor and why?
Obviously I prefer indoor like the Otse Police College courts. When it is hot you don’t feel the heat or there is no disturbance of sun rays. When it is raining play continues without interruptions. The weather can contribute to one being exhausted quickly. Outdoor facilities also come with lots of injuries unlike the comfort of an indoor facility.
Sourced via thevoicebw.com

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FIJI Netball Association is mum over former national coach Melissa Walker’s appointment as the first Wales fulltime coach.

President Milika Munivai said the association “have no comments” on her new job.

Walker and FNA had been at loggerheads for some time during which she was sacked in May this year but brought back after an intervention from the Government.

A month after being reinstated, the national netball governing body stopped Walker from travelling to the Pacific Mini Games in Cook Islands due to her being pregnant.

Last month, the former Maori coach received another termination letter from Netball Fiji.

In reply, Walker filed a case against FNA over the non-payment of her salary and the breach of contract.

She was also subjected to a seven-day ultimatum to leave the country from the Immigration Department.

However, the department, after being informed about Walker’s case against FNA, gave her a temporary resident’s permit.

During the first hearing of the case on Tuesday, the FNA lawyer asked for more time. The matter will again be heard on December 18.
Sourced via fijitimes.com

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The Australian netball team is set to embark on a gruelling two-year schedule, with a nine-month season in 2010 and a relatively short break before the world championships the following year.

The five-Test tour of the United Kingdom in February ,which comprises two matches against Scotland and three against England, heralds the start of a hectic schedule.

Australian coach Norma Plummer is also hoping to squeeze in a training camp in India, the host of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, either side of the UK tour.

After returning home, the players will throw themselves into the third season of the ANZ Championship trans-Tasman competition between March and July.

The Diamonds will then play home and away Tests against rival New Zealand and will also host Jamaica in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games tournament in Delhi in October.

Following that competition, the Diamonds will head to England for the second World Series tournament in November.

With the 2011 world championships scheduled for Singapore in July, their off-season break is likely to be shorter than usual with the ANZ Championship having to be moved forward from its usual July finish.

Plummer stressed she wouldn’t take any risks with the three players who had recently undergone knee clean outs, skipper and shooter Sharelle McMahon and defenders Bianca Chatfield and Julie Corleto.

“I certainly won’t take any risks with any of those players that have had surgery, they have got to be fit to travel,” Plummer told AAP.

“I wouldn’t want them to go in if it meant they weren’t at peak condition, because it’s a long year and we have bigger scalps down the track with the Commonwealth Games.”

Netball Australia chief executive officer Kate Palmer confirmed her organisation was trying to organise some time for the Diamonds in India early next year as preparation for their Commonwealth Games campaign.

“We’d love the opportunity to go into India, some of our young athletes haven’t travelled to that part of the world yet,” Palmer told AAP.

“It could only be done before or after the tour to Britain, it depends on what stage the organising groups are at in India, we don’t want to impose ourselves while they are in their final stages of preparation.”

Palmer said her organisation was very conscious of the burnout factor and Plummer had been working closer than ever before with the Australian ANZ Championship coaches.

Plummer was philosophical about the crowded program, with the players attending camps in January 2010 before playing their five British Tests in just over a week.
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“It’s going to pretty hectic, but most of our tours are becoming that way now,” Plummer said.
Sourced via stuff.co.nz

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The Melissa Walker/Netball Fiji saga has taken another twist with Netball Fiji today saying that they will decide at the Council Meeting on Saturday, whether to pay Walker or not.

It has been revealed by Netball Fiji Secretary Patricia Rokoua, that money owed to Walker, is not the $40,000 that she’s claiming but money owed before she was terminated after the South Africa Tour in July.

Rokoua adds this will all be discussed in their next Council meeting on Saturday.

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Rokoua adds that the public should understand that Netball Fiji terminated Walker’s contract straight after the South Africa Tour and they had nothing to do with her or her pay after this.

Meanwhile, Government intervened and re-instated Walker.

Netball Fiji then agreed to have her coach the team to the Pacific Mini Games in the Cook Islands, but then decided she was not allowed to travel at the 11th hour as she was pregnant and so feared for her safety.

However, Walker said she has no knowledge of the Council meeting this weekend, as there has been no correspondence with the Netball Fiji Executives, adding there is no need for the Council to decide on the money that should be paid to her.
Sourced via fijivillage.com

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Netball, apparently, ‘just got hotter’. The dresses couldn’t be any shorter, so the rules of the game have been slashed instead.

‘Fast Net‘, netball’s answer to Twenty20 cricket, made its debut at the Co-Operative World Netball Series at Manchester’s MEN Arena this weekend.

The three-day tournament included the top six teams in the world – Australia, England, Jamaica, Samoa, Malawi and New Zealand, the eventual winners.

There were six-minute quarters instead of the usual 15 minutes, shooters could earn two points by shooting from outside the circle and teams could nominate a ‘power play’ quarter to score double points.

All very exciting, despite the slightly naff name, but ‘Why is that woman holding a table tennis bat at the side of the court?’ texted a friend, who was watching on Sky Sports. Ah, that would be the rolling substitutions – an innovative idea if, unfortunately, a little amateur in the execution.

In true Twenty20 style, however, fireworks signalled the start of the power plays, the 4,000-strong crowd danced away the two-minute intervals and Jamaica sported a different outfit each day. Sadly, however, there were no male cheerleaders springing up on to podiums when a four was scored.

Paul Clark, chief executive of England Netball, believes Fast Net could be netball’s answer to Rugby Sevens, which, alongside golf, has been nominated as an Olympic sport for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Clark said: ‘This version of the game could be more attractive to the IOC because it’s shorter, it’s more concise; it’s more exciting and you can put a bit more razzmatazz around it.

The tournament could be condensed into four or five days playing in an arena with basketball and volleyball, but the Olympics is a long road. Netball’s not strong in Europe, Russia or China and they’re the big power brokers. It’s about visibility. As a sport we’ve got to work hard to get that visibility.’

The message from netball’s administrators, including Molly Rhone, president of International Federation Netball Association (IFNA), was clear: netball needs to innovate to survive.

‘If we don’t change we will become irrelevant,’ stated Kate Palmer, CEO of Netball Australia.

Not only could Fast Net reach new audiences at home, it could be marketed to countries where netball is not widely played, such as Dubai or China, which would bring its own commercial benefits and introduce new nations (and their IOC votes) to the sport.

I start to worry, however, when sport is referred to as a ‘product’, something soulless that can be repackaged and shipped where necessary for the right price. Who decreed setting off a few fireworks was an automatic shortcut to global domination? Haven’t we learned the lessons of cricket’s flirtation with Allen Stanford?

Clark batted away the suggestion that Fast Net was a slap-dash version of the traditional game, insisting Test netball would survive, and hopefully he’ll be proved right. After all, Fast Net and netball are not as far removed as Twenty20 and Test cricket and players’ heads will not be turned by money. There isn’t any, it’s as simple as that.

The fans in Manchester certainly seemed to enjoy it. I’ve never seen such interaction between court and crowd, such as when an umpire was universally booed for failing to spot an infringement. Long-range shooting also largely eradicated the propensity for formulaic attacking moves but, with just six-minute quarters, there was far too much time wasting.

Karen Atkinson, England co-captain, admitted she too had her reservations about the new rules, thinking they were perhaps a bit too extreme, but enjoyed the tournament.

England certainly adapted to the format quicker than most, but lost 33-22 to Jamaica in the semi-finals and then 23-18 to Australia in the third-place play-off, having beaten the World No1s for the first time since 1983 in the group stage.

Yet, however disappointed Atkinson was with England’s performance on Sunday, her priorities remained the Co-operative International matches at the University of Bath against Australia today and New Zealand on Thursday, when it will be back to the serious business of Tests, which affect the world rankings. Quite right, too.

The World Netball Series promised netball with a ‘wow factor’ and I think it delivered. After all, anything that consciously moves away from the schoolgirl stigma that still undermines netball is a positive. Whether the IOC will be impressed, however, remains to be seen.

Sourced via Daiilymail.co.uk

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We are looking for your nominations for the best looking sport babes in the world. The nominations can include sport babes from around the globe, from any country, from any sporting code-the more the merrier.

Nominations close on 30 September 2009.

Send your nominations to to us by filling out the form below. You may nominate up to 3 athletes per time.

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You can take a person out of a country, but you can’t take a country out of a person.

This is evident in the Air Pacific Under-21 netball team that is taking part at the World Youth Netball Championships in the Cook Islands.

Speaking to Fijivillage sports, coach Melissa Walker said they are surprised with the coverage the team is getting, and in just the few days they’ve been there, people have noticed the Fijian flair in the girls.

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The Air Pacific Under-21 team beat Samoa by 57-43 in their first game yesterday and their next game is against Botswana at 5:15pm this afternoon.

Fiji is currently in second place on 4 points behind pool leaders Australia.
Sourced via fijivillage.com

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The Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic leave for Australia tomorrow for what they hope will be the last time this season.

The Magic take on the West Coast Fever in Perth on Sunday and will remain in Australia next week to prepare for their clash against the in-form Adelaide Thunderbirds in the final round of the ANZ Championship.

If all goes to plan over the last couple of rounds and the Magic maintain their position on top of the standings, they will book themselves a home play-off. The aim is to win that and take the direct route in to the final of the transtasman league.

Unfortunately for the Magic there are two very strong Australian teams circling, both eager to disrupt the Waikato side’s play-off designs.

And then there are the factors they cannot control.

The Magic can only hope the Melbourne Vixens, who are equal on points with them in first place, do not score enough goals to overtake them on goal percentage.

While the Magic have two very tough assignments over the final two rounds, the Vixens should be relatively untroubled at home against the Canterbury Tactix and Central Pulse. The two games present a strong opportunity for the Vixens to record some big wins and boost their goal percentage.

But Magic coach Noeline Taurua said her side had to concentrate on their own job over the next two weeks and hope the rest fell into place.

“We’ve just got to maintain control over what we’re doing, we can’t rely on anybody else to do the business for us.”

Right from the season’s start the Magic have earmarked this road trip as crucial to their finals hopes.

Taurua said that since her side’s round-four loss to the Queensland Firebirds the team had been working on implementing strategies to ensure success against the Australian teams.

“What we’ve been doing since we got beaten by the Firebirds has been setting ourselves up for the Australian style. I think when we got beaten by the Firebirds we got exposed in certain areas, as all New Zealand teams have been,” said Taurua.

The Southern Steel’s difficult play-off assignment has got even tougher with Silver Fern defender Sheryl Scanlan still struggling with a recurring calf injury that has sidelined her for the past two rounds.

After Monday night’s two-goal loss to the Firebirds, the Steel must win their next two games against the Thunderbirds and NSW Swifts and rely on other results going their way if they are to make the top four.

Scanlan, who hurt the same calf at a pre-season tournament in Queenstown, suffered a twinge in her side’s loss to the West Coast Fever in round 10 and then exacerbated the problem by returning to training too soon.

Surf’s up for the UNCW Surf Club. The team placed second in the National Scholastic Surfing Association Championships last week in California. That was the best finish of any east coast school in the history of the competition.

Ben and Mike Powell of Ocean Isle Beach finished second and third in the men’s division.

Drake Courie of Carolina Beach finished fifth in long board.
Sourced via wwaytv3.com

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