Gauteng Jaguars’ midcourt star, Izette Griesel, reckons their losing the 2022 Telkom Netball League final was a necessary hindrance. The Tshwane-based team missed the opportunity to stretch their historic win of the tournament and fell in the final to crosstown rivals, the Gauteng Golden Fireballs. The Johannesburg side stopped the Jaguars in their tracks in a tightly contested final to win the title on a 35-32 score. The Fireballs won their first title and recorded two victories over the most dominant team in the league
Jaguars won their first league title in the 2017 season when they beat the North West Flames in the final, bringing an end to the Free State Crinums’ dominance in the competition, who had won the championship three times in a row. The Jenny van Dyk-led side went on to win four more titles thereafter and after the change of coaching, with van Dyk taking up the mentor coach position, guiding Rozanne Mathys, the team made yet another final in 2022 only to fall to the sword the Fireballs.
Griesel thinks this loss was important to give the team a wake up call, the loss needed to remind them that the competition is not an easy one. The 2023 edition of the Telkom Netball League is set to start with a power week on 27 April at the Ngoako Ramahlodi Sports Complex in Seshego, Polokwane for the opening week. The Heatfelt Arena in Tshwane will be the second venue for the tournament and it will also host the finals week which will be in July.
“Even though we don’t want to say it, I think it was a good thing (that we lost.) It was a new year with a new coach and new team so it was a good year still, making the finals while we were getting to know each other. I think this year we are ready to take the cup again, we are really working hard. We know what went wrong and what we need to work on. We are aiming for that gold medal,” says Griesel.
Although the end goal is getting the gold medal, the Telkom #StandTall ambassador says it’s important that the team not rush the process of getting to the podium again but will have to eliminate each opponent at a time to get to their goal. This year’s competition has two new teams that will represent the Free State and Limpopo provinces.
The Free State Sonoblomo and the Limpopo Lilies will play in the second division while the Eastern Cape Aloes who are the champions of the same division earn a promotion to the first division where KwaZulu Natal Kingdom Stars have been reinstated after being relegated in the promotion match against Aloes.
“First of all, we need to take it game for game. We can’t focus too much on the end product, for now it’s just the first week. We just need to take it match for match and win every match. We just have to work on our combinations and our strong points. This is why we have to know each other so well, to know exactly what this one likes and what that one likes so we can use those strong points even more to our advantage,” she says.
Griesel was part of the Proteas month-long training camp which was held at the Stellenbosch Academy of Sports. She reckons to be in the camp with fellow Jaguars'
teammate, Kamogelo Maseko will not only yield great results in the national team but will also count a lot in the
“It makes it easy, especially coming out of a month long camp. We know each other so well. It makes it easy to know, for example, what exactly Kamo wants and what she likes, this makes it so much easier,” she adds.
Griesel is also confident that South Africa will produce an incredible performance at the Vitality Netball World Cup in Cape Town. She reckons the number of camps that the Proteas have been in so far, have improved the team not only on the court but how the players relate to one another off court too. Following Norma Plummer’s reappointment in November ahead of the Spar Diamond Challenge, the senior national team gathered in late December for the Quad Series training camp, then again in February which included the tour to Australia before going to the Stellenbosch University in March for a month-long camp.
“We are so privileged to have these training camps because in the past it had never been like that. We’d pitch for maybe a week or weekend before a tour, train a bit then go. Now we actually get to work together, get to know each other, what works for this one and what doesn’t work? What does this one prefer and it’s great. We need that, it’s great preparation for the World Cup. We are really working towards that (a gold medal), we are giving it our everything. That is what we are working towards,” she says.