Girls face Aussie test at Games
AFTER comfortable victories on the first two days of competition, the Sunshine Girls are expected to get their first real test at the 19th Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India when they face rivals Australia today in a marquee Pool “A” netball match-up.
Jamaica, who placed fourth at the last event in Melbourne, Australia (2006), opened their account with a 75-36 thrashing of Trinidad and Tobago on Monday and followed up with a 71-48 whipping of Malawi on Tuesday to lie second in the group behind Australia on goal average.
They will enter today’s game, scheduled to tip-off at 4:30 am (Jamaican time) at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex, as the underdogs, having only beaten the number one-ranked Aussies once in their last five meetings.
That victory was a year ago at the National Indoor Sports Centre where the No 4-ranked Girls pipped their rivals, 56-55, to record a historic draw in their two-Test series.
In their most recent encounters two months ago, the Jamaicans — minus many of their top players, like captain Simone Forbes — were soundly beaten in the first half of their tour of Oceana, losing all three games by more than 20 goals (59-38, 69-42 and 71-40).
With both teams having had positive starts in India, however, assistant coach Annett Daley is expecting a closer game today.
“We’re definitely going for a win (because) we would love to top the zone,” she said. “But, we know Australia is a physical team… so we expect that both teams will be going all-out to get a win.”
And despite facing the Australians so soon after the disappointing Oceana tour, Daley believes the players are mentally prepared for the big clash.
“They’re different players here now who are coming out of a successful game against England and they’ve also been doing well here (in India),” she added.
The Ausies have so far been in devastating form at the Games, whipping Samoa 76-39 and India 113-18, but Daley thinks they’ve got just the plan to stop them.
“In order to stop the Australians it has to be a total team work, not just attacking, but also defensive work,” she told the Observer.
“At no point… can a player stand by and say, ‘I’m a defender’,” she declared.
“Once we have the ball it’s total attack and when we lose it, it’s total defending. So, that’s what we’ve been looking at because that’s the only we can we really stop the Australians,” Daley said.
Jamaica’s starting line-up is expected to be a strong one and will be boosted by the return of centre Paula Thompson who was forced to sit out the Malawi game with a cheekbone injury sustained against Trinidad.
Jamaica — Simone Forbes (captain), Romelda Aiken, Nicole Aiken, Nadine Bryan, Paula Thompson, Georgia Gordon, Althea Byfield, Kasey Evering, Jhanielle Fowler, Kimone Tulloch, Anna-Kay Griffiths, Sasha-Gaye Henry.