Fiji Netball is looking forward to a fresh start in 2021, after a challenging year affected by Covid-19.
Fiji Netball national squad regroup post Covid-19. Photo: Facebook / Netball Fiji
The Fiji Pearls are scheduled to compete in the Singapore Nations Cup in September this year, while Suva is set to host the World Youth Cup in December. Both events were earlier postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
However there has been progress locally with announcement that the former assistant coach for the Queensland Firebirds, Jenny Brazel, is the new Fiji Netball head coach.
President of the local netball association, RubyAnn Sorovaki, said Brazel was due to arrive in Fiji next month.
President of the Fiji Netball Association, RubyAnn Sorovaki. Photo: Supplied
"We're really excited about having Jenny join us, fingers crossed by February, to start work with our squads," she said.
"It's full-time on the ground working with our squads, our athletes, and then of course doing development work with our coaches around the country. We've been trying to chat as often as possible to get all the prep work done for her before she gets in."
Meanwhile 25 players have been named in the senior national side, and 21 members have been included in the Fiji 'A' team, selected off the back of the inaugural Reset Netball Championship held at the end of 2020 to identify the best domestic players.
Sorovaki said the talent identified over the course of the four week competition spoke volumes about the potential of Fiji Netball.
"It's not as big of a pool as we would have liked, but it's something that we can start off with given we haven't had anything going on with our national squad, so just having a pool of about 45, 46 athletes for Jenny to look at is great," she said.
"We had some really good performances from our under 21's, about nine of them managed to make it into the Fiji Pearls squad, including a 15-year-old, so for us that just speaks volumes to the ability for us to have good athletes."
"We just need to get the work done on the ground and look at getting them into a high performace programme now," she added.
Lautoka National Squad members training earlier this morning with Netball Fiji President RubyAnn Sorovaki visiting them before other meetings today in the burning west. pic.twitter.com/icMRoTix2f
— Fiji Netball (@FijiNetball) September 25, 2020
Sorovaki believed the return of a revived Pacific Nations Series could also benefit the Pacific Island nations, to help boost the sport within the regions while the international netball calendar remains unpredictable.
"We're talking here locally in Fiji about talking to our counterparts in the region, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa... about a possible revisit of the Pacific Nations Cup and whether there is a possibilty of it happening."
"For us to prepare oursleves, and to play as many games as we can before we actually get on the plane and play the big guns, it's probably more cost effective for us to pick a location to go and play at, or for one country to host, but just looking at all those logistics of course it is going to take a while."
"I think the important thing is not letting Covid-19 and the restrictions now impose on us in terms of what we can do. We still need to remain positive, we still need to look out, refocus, re-prioritise, and all of us really need to look at what's happening domestically and how it can contribute to us getting one or two games under our belt."
Netball is the sport with the best bet of hosting international competition in Fiji this year and Sorovaki wasn't wasting anytime to ensure they're well prepared.
Fiji celebrate winning the Oceania World Youth Cup netball qualifying tournament. Photo: Netball New Zealand
"I gather countries are still going ahead and preparing their teams ensuring they're bringing the best teams in and we'll be doing the same. Once Jenny gets in we need to look at getting our under 21's sorted," she said.
"We're just getting all the stuff on the ground done here as much as we possibly can. Fiji Netball is in touch with the International Netball Federation (INF) on any changes or possible postponements if necessary, but what we're doing is we're focusing domestically in what we have to be prepared to do."
