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South African national netball coach, Burta de Kock, is a realistic woman. She understands that things may not always go the way she wants, but she is prepared to work with any situation, to make sure that South Africa is always well represented on the world stage. 

 

Her thoughts are currently focused on the upcoming home series against Malawi, who arrive in SA on 15 July.

 

The SPAR National Netball Team is due to play three matches against Malawi, on 21, 23, and 25 July, in Pretoria (or Pietersburg), Cape Town, and Durban, respectively.

 

The coach says her charges are looking forward to the three-test series, against a strong Malawi side.

 

“We’ve lost already twice against them. That was first at the Commonwealth Games, and then in Malawi with quite a few new caps. For sure, it’s a tough thing to beat them in their own country.

 

“Here at home, we re looking forward to this test, and we’ve got a lot of brilliant experienced players, who also want to make this test series successful,” continues de Kock.

 

The national team’s main goal is to excel at the Netball World Championships taking place in New Zealand in November.

 

“It’s a great opportunity for a lot of players, and as I said we have a lot of experienced players back, Also a lot of strong leaders on court, both attacking and defensive.

 

“So we are looking forward to our camp to focus on the basic skills that we will go into it to try and better our position.”

 

De Kock says at the upcoming World Champs, shooters have to deliver a 90% plus goal average.

 

“In South Africa, there is no real goal shooter or goal attack with a consistent goal average. If we can get them together, and if we are together at the camp, they know what we expect from them.

 

“We’ll see also against Malawi, when the pressure is on, that’s when the damage normally comes in with the goal average. We hope to force them into a higher percentage, and we know they will practice and they will do it for South Africa.”

 

De Kock is grateful for the opportunity given to the players and the team management. “We are making the best of every second of the day.

 

“We still struggle with other little organizational things, like players not available for seven day camps, etc. But we are making use of all the services and all the time in our hands.”

 

She also has high praise for those sponsors currently supporting netball, and urges other corporates to come one board.

 

“I think the most important thing is to thank the sponsors on board, for SPAR, Gilbert, and New Balance for their input, we can’t go on without them.

 

“Also for SASCOC, they’re supporting us a lot with the training camps at High Performance Centre, but we still have a lack of money,” says de Kock.

 

“But we are not focusing on that, we are focusing on taking the passion of netball in South Africa, make opportunities for players, and go and thrash the world, because we have the players.

 

“We just want to motivate the regions and the provincial coaches and management to uplift the standard of play and the focus on making things better for the players.”

 

gsport wishes the National Team all the best as it gears up for the Netball World Champs!