Talk with Tina - 24 hours @ the Worthing College Netball Performance Programme

They talk about a week in football, well its 24hours in netball !

Tuesday night saw the nine girls from academy travel to Brighton to play Whiley Katz in the Brighton Mid Week League, a completely unknown team, with Sarah Uncles travelling with the squad for the first time. The previous two training sessions had been based on defensive play and I was keen to see this put into practice. The girls got off to a flying start, with the defensive work throughout the court working really well, and Katy Finlay and Katie Pearcy converting the majority of shooting opportunities, the 1st quarter ended 16-4 to Worthing. Changes were made at quarter time with Sarah Uncles coming on at C and Emily Begley at GS, it took a little while for the team to settle down but the hard work continued and the defensive pairing of Mele Jackson and Mele Stubbs remained outstanding quarter ending 29-9. Further rotation at half time saw Anna Van Eevelt back at C, Katie Pearcy taking over from Katy Finlay at GS. The game continued pretty much as before with Worthing dominating defensively and accurate shooting third quarter ended 40-12. Mele Jackson and Jodie Beaney came off at three quarter time and Anna Van Eevelt, the versatile player that she is, went in at GD. Concentration was a problem last quarter as the game was well and truly over. Game won 50-19. Three out of Three in the Brighton league and a good nights netball.

Wednesday was the visit of Tautons College, we were aware it was going to be a tough game as they have a number of regional players as well. The game started badly with Tautons converting a turnover and Worthing not getting going for around 8 mins when they were 5 -0 down. We sparked into life briefly pulling the game back to 6 all, before switching off again quarter ending 12-6 Tautons. Unfortunately Vicky Bowles had to leave the court as she had injured a finger and was replaced by Jodie Beaney. The girls were reminded a game was not lost until the end, and they needed to work hard, move onto the ball and take the opportunities presented. If the 1st quarter was poor, the 2nd was even worse with Sarah Uncles sustaining a nasty cut to the knee which meant she had to leave the court and Katie Pearcy turning her ankle. 2nd quarter ended 22-8. The girls were again reminded they were a much better team than they were demonstrating and they need to believe in them selves, and get the game going. Early in the third quarter it became apparent Katie P could not continue so we were down to 6 players, an afternoon one just wanted to end – third quarter ended 31-10. We took Lizzie Hall from the 2nd Team to replace the 3rd injured player and the girls were told to go out and win the last quarter and restore some pride. We lost the last quarter by 1 goal 9-8 however a much better effort. A team talk at the end of the game to face up to our failings, a massive dent to our pride but hopefully the girls will all learn from this. Heads going down result in a negative effect across the whole team, the onus is on the individuals to sort this out.