Cape Winelands on target for national netball title

The Cape Winelands district team will have to clear one more hurdle on Saturday if they hope to lift the senior A division title, but coach Marchelle Maroun is confident of their chances after her side clawed their way back to beat a defiant Johannesburg squad on Friday at the Spar National Netball Championships in Cape Town.

Having gone unbeaten in the round robin stage of the tournament, Winelands were given a scare in their semifinal against Johannesburg, who had finished fourth in the opening round.

After trailing 31-29 at half-time, however, they turned it around to secure a narrow 60-56 victory.

“I knew my players had it in them, and it was what I was going to say to them (during the breaks) that mattered. I couldn’t let them focus on the score too much because they needed to stay focussed on their job on court,” Maroun said.

“And I think that worked for them. Not once did they refer to the score, and it was good for me as a coach to see the players coming off the court and telling each other to lift their heads and saying they were going to fight for it.

“It’s good to see that in a team. I’m very proud of the girls.”

Winelands captain Nichole Taljaard admitted her team were under pressure to win the match that counted the most, but she believed her players could maintain their composure and close out an impressive week by lifting the title.

“There’s always pressure going into a final. Both teams want to play for gold and nobody wants to lose,” Taljaard said.

“We’ve been the top team but we’ve also made mistakes in all our games, so we’re hoping to just take the positive aspects into the final and play to our strengths.”

Though a strong Nelson Mandela Bay side also faced a battle in the early stages of their semifinal against Cape Town on Friday, they were more convincing as they racked up a comfortable 47-35 win to secure their place in the trophy contest.

Nelson Mandela Bay coach Lana Krige said she would urge her players to stick to the basics in the final against a powerful Cape Winelands team, to be played at 11.30am on Saturday at Hoërskool DF Malan.

“They need to understand it’s still a game of netball – you still need to catch, pass and run. It’s just about the timing in how you do those things, and if you can do them more accurately and consistently than your opponents then the results will come,” Krige said.

“But focussing on the result in a final, in which none of them have played before, creates pressure. So we’ll focus on what we can control.”