RENOWNED Australian netball coach Jill McIntosh arrives in the island today for a five-month stint as technical director of Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls as they prepare for this year’s big show — the World Netball Championships (WNC) in Singapore from July 3-10.

McIntosh was recruited by the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA) in September last year to act as a consultant for the senior national team as the players seek to improve their fortunes at the top tournament in world netball.

The Jamaicans won the bronze medal at the last event in Auckland, New Zealand in 2007, after finishing third and hope to move to the top of the rostrum this year, dethroning world champions Australia and second-ranked New Zealand.

McIntosh has worked with the national team in the past and has been to Jamaica on several occasions to conduct coaching seminars.

Her last visit was in July and August last year when she initiated a Jamaica Award Netball Coaching Certification programme for seven local coaches.

The former player and coach of world championship winning Australian netball teams in 2007, graded Sunshine Girls coach Connie Francis for her Jamaica award.

JNA president, Marva Bernard said the Australian, who has been designing training programmes for the senior players since she was hired, is excited about the possibility of actually remaining in Jamaica for an extended period and so is the JNA.

Her previous longest stint has been six weeks long.

“We are looking forward to this next step in the preparation of the team for the WNC,” Bernard told the Observer.

“Jill is excited to be here and the ladies are also ready to welcome her… she has never spent this long with any national team that she has consulted with and we expect that once the commitment is there, and it is, the sky is the limit.”

Commitment will be an important part of the preparation as McIntosh has told the Observer in previous interviews that the mental toughness of the Sunshine Girls will be essential if they are to overcome top guns Australia.

“The difference (between the Jamaican players and the Australians) at the moment is probably more mental than anything else,” she told the Observer in an interview last August.

McIntosh has theorised that Jamaica’s failure to break into the top-two has more to do with a psychological than tactical weakness, as she has asserted that player-to-player there’s not much difference between Jamaica and Australia.

The Sunshine Girls demonstrated that fact during their last test series against the Australians at the National Indoor Sports Centre (NISC) in January where after having lost one game, they drew a second and won the third.