North West Flames have a new dynamic addition to their squad this year. Neo Mosweu caught the attention of many netball lovers when she took to the court in their opening match of the season against the 2022 Telkom Netball League (TNL) winners, Gauteng Golden Fireballs.
The 21-year-old set the court ablaze when she debuted for her side in the tournament and has caused excitement for netball fans.
The TNL returned to the Ellis Park Indoor Arena for the first time since the 2018 edition, and hosted the first of three power weeks from 26 April to 5 March with the finals week set for 13 to 19 June 2024.
Mosweu started playing the sport accidentally after she left behind by her school transport while she was still in primary school where after a teacher convinced her to join the netball practice while she waited for her father to pick her up. She has not looked back since. The goal attack says she is happy with the performance she put in her debut appearance in the competition.
“I think I set up a high standard for myself, I am not saying I can’t maintain the standard but sometimes I feel like there is some pressure on me. I can feel that people are expecting me to give the same performance every time I play which is very fair because that is the standard I set.
I think I can keep up with it, I just need to gel well with my team and eliminate the little errors we are making as a team,” says Mosweu.
Although she impressed a lot of people with her agile moves around the court, she admits that the elite league is not as easy as she thought. The psychology student at the North West University understands that she has to up her standards in order to keep up with the standards of the league.
“It’s a challenge, of course, because this is the first time playing at this level. I am still trying to find myself and I am only getting to adapt to my team. Sometimes the pressure becomes a bit difficult because I can see how the other teams plan around my game. So I need to go strengthen my strong parts (of the game) and just be able to play the same way I started or even stronger.
It is a bit difficult but I am trying. I like my speed, a lot. I have noticed that there is no defender that can match my speed, most of the things I am doing now are things that I have learnt only this year,” she explains.
The Bokone Bophirima side has had a tough start to the season and have only won a single match out of the six they have played in the opening power week on the TNL. The Flames last reached the top four of the competition in the 2019 edition of the competition.
Former winners the Free State Crinums, Fireballs, and Gauteng Jaguars are sitting in the top three positions respectively after six rounds of matches. Meanwhile newly promoted Limpopo Baobabs have yet to record a victory in the elite division of the competition.
Mosweu realises that returning to glory won’t be an easy feat, she reckons better preparation for the second power week set for 31 May to 5 June.
“We definitely want to stand on the podium but we have a lot of losses so far. We just need to come back stronger and if we let anything slip in the second leg it’s going to make our goal hard to reach.
We are going to start working on the errors that we have been making from Tuesday when we get back to training. I think we need more difficult training sessions than what we had before the start of the competition,” she says.
Mosweu is hopeful that someday she will be able to don the green and gold for the Spar Proteas to represent South Africa at the international level.
“I think if I keep performing at the level that I started and being consistent might help me make it into the SA team. I am capable and I will work really hard to get into the team.
I think I want to take it one day at a time, when I try hard to be consistent I feel like my performance becomes very average but when I think about having fun then I perform above expectations,” she says.