Mpumalanga Sunbirds coach Faith Motau is confident that this is the year her team claims the top spot.
The Sunbirds have been one of the promising teams in Division Two of the Telkom Netball League, but they have yet to take the title. The side came close to taking the title in the 2022 season but lost the final to an assertive Eastern Cape Aloes and lost the game by three points.
Motau’s side had a good showing in the opening Power Week of the TNL season. Sunbirds took to the court eight times and walked away with six victories, losing only to the Western Cape Tornados and North West Tshukudu. The Mpumalanga side secured 12 points and sit third on the Division Two log. The KwaZulu-Natal Kingdom Stars complete the top four with the same number of points.
Aloes, together with the Stars, have won most of the titles in the lower tier of the league, each having taken the trophy three times. Motau says she believes her side is capable of taking the trophy this season.
“Very bad is a cliché answer but we want it very bad. We have been tapping and knocking. Last year’s semifinal loss was a bit of a knock, 40 more seconds of that game would have turned out differently. But we learnt lessons from it and I think the players know they are capable of it. They want it. It is a new season, it is a matter of refocusing. We have set the bar high and setting very high standards this year. We are working on reaching every one of them. We want it bad. The players deserve it. We have been knocking and I think it is about time,” explains Motau.
CONSISTENCY IS KEY
The former Sunbirds captain says the team needs to work on being consistent throughout the season for them to get to their goal of playing in the final and ultimately the promotion/ relegation match.
“I hope that we stay consistent. Our first leg was really good last year but the second leg wasn’t as great. I am honestly hoping that the Sunbirds get into a habit of consistency from the first leg to the second leg to the playoffs and all the way to the finals. I say the finals because I genuinely hope we get to play in the final this year and rank ourselves well. I am hoping they get to a space where they realise it’s just here. It's only a matter of just grabbing it. We have put in the work and we have prepared ourselves. I just hope we keep our consistency throughout the whole competition, where there is no dip and we need to figure out how to get to the playoffs. It must be clean and clear-cut. The end goal is to play that final and the promotion match,” she says.
Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape are the only provinces that have one team each in the competition. Motau explains that they have developed strategies to ensure the team prepares effectively to overcome the province’s vastness.
“We have a very diverse group of players this season. The girls get training programmes that they need to do for the week, they do that by themselves because we don’t have the luxury of getting together every Wednesday or Thursday. We have been doing it for so long, that we have now figured out the logistics around it. We now have training camp weekends. We try to use the time we have really well, we obviously can’t overload players with training because of injuries and we have to be careful and manage bodies. We have learnt how to manage it. We move around, sometimes we’re in Nelspruit, sometimes we are in Middelburg or Witbank, just anywhere the players can get to,” she says.
FIREBALLS TOP THE TABLE
Meanwhile, the 2022 Division One champions, the Gauteng Golden Fireballs, finished the opening round at the top of the table. They are the only unbeaten side in the entire competition after having played six games. They also beat the defending champions, Free State Crinum in the week-long launch week. However, the Martha Mosoahle-Samm-led team is still on course to defend its title.
Host team, the North West Flames, showed a good account in front of their home fans with three wins out of six in the opener, which put them in the third spot while record title holders, the Gauteng Jaguars had a slow start to the competition. They complete the top four in Division One with six points from three wins.
Last season’s promotion match winners, Aloes are only team who failed to register a win in the opening round.