Jaguars confident of defending their TNL title

Five-times netball league champions Gauteng Jaguars will not be bowing to outside pressure to influence how they approach the remainder of the season as they work their way up the Telkom Netball League.

Although they were the favourites even before the season started, it has been their South Gauteng rivals, Golden Fireballs, who have been shining and leading the troops.

The Jaguars are currently second on the Division One table with 12 points from seven matches, two behind the Fireballs who have played one game more than their rivals.

They will return to court on Saturday, 11 June when they take on the wounded KwaZulu Natal Kingdom Stars.

Jaguars centre court player Izette Griesel says they are focused on their own game and are not listening to outside forces.

“I think there is always pressure on the defending champions but we are not focusing on that. It’s a new tournament, we have new management, we have new coaches, we have new players so it’s a whole new tournament. We are taking it game by game and hopefully get that trophy again,” says Griesel.

“If you know the Jaguars, you know that we really hate losing. It’s the one thing we all have in common. The loss in Durban (to Fireballs) was a bit hard to swallow but we know we had to step up and we took that court with full confidence, with one aim in mind and we wanted to take the win. We wanted to improve on everything we worked on so far,” she explains about the result that shook the tournament.

Jenny van Dyk is the coach that led and made Jaguars the formidable side in the sport in the country. She is now the mentor coach to Rozanne Matthyse who took over the coaching reins this season.

“It’s been a difficult change, in the beginning. I mean we had had a journey with Jenny van Dyk for seven, eight years and in the first three finals, we lost, then we came second (got) silver. After that, we were champions every single year, it was quite a journey. It was a big change, adapting to the new coaches and the new way of coaching but it has been a great journey so far and we are learning a lot as we go,” says the captain.

The Spar Proteas star says it helps that Van Dyk is not completely lost to the team.

“It does help a lot. We also, some of the Tuks players, we play on Monday with her and it’s nice seeing you old coach a bit and getting some extra tips,” she says.

The Jaguars are the strongest side in the competition and they boast seven Proteas in the team with six of them being part of the 24 players contracted by Netball South Africa.

The contracts are NSA’s first step in pushing the sport to the professional direction. Griesel, Marlize de Bruin, Kamogelo Maseko, Tshina Mdau, Lungile Mthembu and Jamie van Wyk are the players who are contracted to the federation until December 2023.

“It’s really great news, we’re really excited for the journey that lies ahead. It means we can get a lot more done, we can get a lot more time together as a team. We can put in a lot more effort and we are working on a place on that podium, this means we can actually try make that happen,” says Griesel.

FIREBALLS AND FLAMES LOOKING TO TURN UP THE HEAT

Meanwhile, the log leading Fireballs will take on the scorching North West Flames. It would however be fooling for the Dr Elsje Jordaan led side to take the Flames lightly who had an impressive weekend where they registered their first win of the season against the Stars and wrapped their weekend with another victory over the three time champions, Free State Crinums.

In Division Two, the Mpumalanga Sunbirds will be looking to return to winning ways after back to back losses last weekend when they take on the Eastern Cape Comets.

The Wendy Higson led side is fresh from defeating the KwaZulu Natal Queens and Western Cape Tornados.

The Sunbirds will be hoping for a victory in order to keep their second position on the log.

They will end their weekend with a tough opposition in the form of the Eastern Cape Aloes who are the only unbeaten team this season, while the Comets will be hoping to hold on to their fourth place for a chance to play in the semifinals of the competition.

After this weekend’s round of matches, the top four positions in both divisions will likely be decided as the competition draws to a close.