The Eastern Cape Aloes’ impressive run in the Telkom Netball League is evident of a team that is determined to get to glory. The Sameshia Esau-led side is only one of two teams to have not tasted defeat in the competition so far this season, the Gauteng Golden Fireballs are the other team. They, however, campaign in the top tier, Division One.
The Aloes are well on their way to defending their Division Two title, having won all six of their matches so far. But for Esau, the best result this season will be earning promotion to move up to the top tier of the league. The Aloes lost to the North West Flames in the promotion/relegation match and lost out on a place in the high-level lineup. Having been Division Two winners five times, back to back last year and in 2020, the Aloes are thirsty to go back to the big time since their relegation in the first season.
“First of all, I don’t like this relegation match because I feel if you win your division you should be pulled up to Division One. It’s unfair to us in Division Two who play six games and still have to play a final then the next day plays a relegation match,” she said.
“The girls are already overwhelmed, you’ve played your final and have won gold, you don’t want to still look into a relegation match and for the team ending last, they do get two days off before they play the relegation match. Definitely, that is something I would like that they (Netball South Africa) can look into going forward. I just feel like if you win your division you must automatically move up and the last (team) in Division One should move down,” explains Esau.
And although the Eastern Cape side are gliding in the competition, Esau is wary of her side loosening their efforts at the top. They will be looking to continue their winning ways when they face the Kingdom Queens and the Northen Cape Diamonds on Saturday and Sunday.
“Being first in the Division doesn’t mean we’re in the finals yet or the playoffs. We cannot be comfortable because of the fact that we are top of the log. This is a ‘new’ tournament and we will take it one game at a time. We want to defend our title and obviously go to Division One,” she says.
Esau lauds her players’ hard work on the court that they can produce good results even though they are not able to train as a group regularly. Aloes players are spread around the province with a big number separated between Gqeberha and East London. This saw the introduction of the Eastern Cape Comets, which also campaign in the lower tier of the competition. Carla Viviers, Bongise Wete, Athenkosi Mbengashe, Britney van der Merwe and Jami-Leigh Goeda all crossed the floor from the Aloes to the Comets.
“At the moment, we have a split of NM Bay and BCM (Buffalo City Metropolitan), that is the reason why we wanted two teams in the Eastern Cape because of the distance. We cannot travel, it’s too far and I feel that if you are competing in a competition like this, a high-performance competition, you want what’s best for the players. At the moment, the East London girls run their own program and the PE girls run with their own program. At least we have the assistant coach (Zandile Njeza) on the other side who’s from BCM and I am from NM Bay, so we work like that and whenever we see each other we just pull it through and make it a team,” she says.
Some of their most influential players this season include Jeanie Steyn, Juanita van Tonder and Zandré Smit. Steyn is the most experienced in the competition. She has played in eight editions and also played in the colours of the Gauteng Jaguars in the early years of the competition. She has also represented the country in the Spar Proteas team that faced Wales in a test under former coach, Norma Plummer.
The Aloes are pushed closely by the vastly improved Mpumalanga side, the Sunbirds, who have only lost to Esau’s side. Sunbirds coach, Thembisile Mdluli is also gunning for gold this season.
“Promotional match (is the goal), we want the gold of course but we don’t care mostly about the gold, we want to play in the relegation match, that’s our goal for this year,” says Mdluli.
“I think when we played against the Aloes, we lost focus, we didn’t stick to the game plan. Another thing was that it was the first time playing (against) them this season, so we know most of the things that they are capable of. They gave their all during that match but we didn’t use whatever we have so I think using whatever we have in the second match will help us but we are going to beat them because we know their strategy, we know how they play. We know most of their players and they don’t know ours. We are going to use that as an opportunity,” she added.
