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SPAR Proteas take gold at Africa Cup

netball14 December 2024 14:43
By:Busisiwe Mokwena
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South Africa have ended the year on a high. The Spar Proteas returned to the top of the pinnacle of the continent by bagging the Africa Netball Cup title.

Taking their fourth continental championship since its launch in 2010.

The Proteas missed out on the 2023 edition of the competition to focus on the Netball World Cup held on African soil for the first time.

The continental title gave South Africa a chance to redeem itself against Uganda following two losses at the Commonwealth Games and the World Cup in Cape Town. The No 1 ranked team on the continent had a clean sweep, from the group stages right into the gold medal winning match. Neighbours, Zimbabwe who beat the She Cranes in the early stages of the competition, took the bronze medal after defeating Malawi.

Proteas assistant coach, Zanele Mdodana says they had prepared efficiently against Uganda.

โ€œWe came into this competition with one thing in mind, we want to be the best team in Africa. We wanted to get the monkey off our backs, we didnโ€™t want people to still the conversation of who is the best team in Africa. We knew we would meet Uganda in the finals, so we were well prepared. It was so good to see our players elevate and buy into our plan for the entire duration of the game. Itโ€™s easy to get a lead against Uganda then become complacent and think itโ€™s over. They are a team that knows how to pull themselves out of the back if they are behind. We couldnโ€™t rest on our laurels. We are glad our girls stepped up. We are very proud of what they could do today,โ€ says Mdodana.

The former Proteas skipper is pleased with how she and head coach Jenny van Dyk have started their tenure with the senior team. They took a convincing 3-0 win over the Malawi Queens in November and have now won the Africa Cup in their first year of coaching the team. Mdodana says things are coming together well.

โ€œWe are on the right track, we are putting the right systems in place and the team is in a good space. We know what our goals and objectives are, we are slowly putting one foot in front of the other. Itโ€™s good to see that the players have welcomed us and have allowed us to share what we think will be our winning recipe. Obviously, there is always room for improvement because we are going to play the higher ranked team in the world and we need to elevate every opportunity we get,โ€ she says.

The Puma Proteas has a successful showing on the continent this year. They effortlessly defended their title at the competition with a clean sweep at the Namibian coastal city. South Africa are the only country to have won the competition which was launched in 2023.

The Jabulani Vilane-led side displayed commanding victories in all the seven matches they played. It was only Zimbabwe who almost gave them a hard time in the group stages, Proteas coach was also wary of Eswatini in the final as some players from both teams play in various leagues around South Africa.

Vilane, who has heaped praises on Netball South Africa for support, says he hopes being able to successfully defend the title can open doors for the team to test itself against the best in the world.

โ€œWe are excited that we got through and we are the gold medallists. The boys were on fire. If we can get sponsors that will assist males because we want to conquer the world. There are countries like England, Australia and New Zealand who have menโ€™s netball, if we can get test series against them to see how far our strengths go,โ€ he says.

The mentor is thrilled by his playersโ€™ contribution to the competition.

โ€œWe had to try our level best to make the team gel, understand each other, and for them to understand the type of netball that was expected from them. They did everything they could,โ€ he says.

Vilane is pleased with the amount of talent that South Africa possesses. The competition allowed him to grant five players their first cap for the national team. Lungani Nyawo, Thabang Lebea, Vukile Zulu, Kwandile Sithole, Shane Labuschagne, Romeo Nqcaku, and Lwazi Nzama all donned the green and gold for the senior team for the first time during the tournament, however, players such as Labuschagne and Zulu have represented South Africa before, although in the shorter format of the sport, at the Fast5 World Series. Vilane has heaped praises on the new players and hopes that more players can be unearthed to broaden the pool of players in the country.

โ€œThe new players did exceptionally well even though the nerves were there. We had one on one conversations with them, trying to understand their head space. They came to the party. Thereโ€™s a huge talent and potential in our country. Every year we have new players that are coming in which shows thereโ€™s development in our country, all we need is support from all the stakeholders and sponsorship too. I think a national league would assist in retrieving these talents. Some of these boys are coming from rural areas and others come from civilised areas, if we mix the two we will get a quality pool of players,โ€ he says.

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