Boland must love Port Elizabeth – they won the Spar national netball championships here for the second time, beating Free State 28 – 25 in the final today.
Port Elizabeth lived up to its nickname the Windy City – the final was played on a cold and blustery day, which made things tough for the goalshooters, as the swirling gusts frequently whipped the ball away from the goalposts.
“The wind was terrible,” said Boland captain Anel Mostert. “We couldn’t play our normal game, and we had to make very short passes, which is very tiring.”
Boland were unbeaten throughout the entire tournament, while Free State lost only to the new champions, both in their round robin match and in the final. Defending champions Gauteng Central had a very disappointing tournament, ending in seventh position, with wins over Gauteng East and Zululand.
Gauteng North always appeared to be in with a shout of reaching the final, but draws with North West South and Free State cost them dearly, and they ended in third position. Eastern Province fought back strongly in the second half of the week, boosted by the arrival on Wednesday of goal defence Lana Krige, who revitalised the team. If they had had a better start to the week, the story might have been different.
Western Province, who started well, unraveled during the week, and finished in fifth place. North West South showed what a difference a good goalshooter makes.
The addition of national goalshooter Sindi Gumede saw the team from Potchefstroom finish strongly, and they gave some more favoured sides a hard time.
Gauteng East managed just one victory, over Zululand, who appeared totally out of their depth without Gumede.
The week was shrouded in controversy, with the resignation on Monday night of the national coach, Marlene Wagner, and two members of the Netball South Africa executive, vice president Helene Botha and director of coaches Bennie Saayman.
The resignations followed an acrimonious meeting of the national council – netball’s governing body – at which the director of selectors, Cecilia Mokokwane, insisted on delivering her draft report on the Spar national team’s recent disappointing tour of Fiji and New Zealand.
The report was highly critical of the coach, and accused her of not sticking to NSA’s policy of having at least two players of colour on the court at any time.
Botha and Saayman resigned in protest at the coach being criticised in her absence, without being given a chance to defend herself, and Wagner resigned overnight.
The team manager Blanche de la Guerre was co-opted onto the executive as vice president on Friday after which she held a press conference at which some of Molokwane’s comments were shown to be less than accurate.
“This should have been handled differently,” said De la Guerre. “I think the resignations were an emotional reaction in the heat of the moment.”
But De la Guerre said the NSA President Mimi Mthethwa had been in contact with the Minister of Sport, who had told her just to make sure the right people were appointed to take netball forward.
De la Guerre’s new appointment means she has to give up her position as team manager, and the Proteas are now faced with the prospect of playing at the Cosana Games in Malawi next month with a new coach and a new manager.
An interim coach is expected to be appointed next week, and the coach and manager to take the team to the world championships in Fiji next July will be announced after the Cosana Games.
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