ON THE FACE of it, the Irish netball team’s recent Singapore adventure was not exactly a glowing success.
The team lost all of their six matches in the Nations Cup — a competition that Ireland were participating in for the third successive year, and which took place just before Christmas.
Yet despite these disappointments, there was also scope for optimism. The Irish team were always up against it, given that they were the lowest ranked side competing, but captain Niamh Murphy feels gradual improvements are being made, even if the results aren’t always positive.
“We didn’t get the wins, but we were the lowest ranked country so we were happy with a good few of the performances,” she tells The42.ie. “We pushed the other countries close, but it takes a lot to get a win.
“We were quite happy with the way we played. We set ourselves new goals for each match. It might not necessarily have been to win the match, but we certainly achieved a lot of the goals we set out. Even just to be together — it’s quite difficult for us training and coming from different parts of the country to be together for a long time, so just as a squad to be together for 10 days will hopefully help us coming into future tournaments.
“We’ve become more professional in the way we’re training and eating, and it’s certainly showing, because that’s the level world netball is at, at the moment. People are training five or six days a week and have special diets and trainers, so we have to step up our game in that way. I can definitely see it this year compared to two years ago, where we are. We’re definitely on the right track.”
(Credit: Netball Singapore)
Nevertheless, although the team are happy with certain elements of their game, Murphy admits that other aspects of their play still require considerable work.
“Our fitness was much better, but footwork is a very basic error [that we were making]. When the pressure comes on, those basic errors still come in — but not as much as there would have been two years ago. Our shooting stats could have been improved as well. But overall, you can’t even compare it to two years ago. It’s so much better.”
Of all the matches they played in Singapore, Malaysia were the opponents Ireland were most optimistic about toppling, yet despite a valiant effort, it wasn’t to be.
“We had set our targets and Malaysia were the closest ranked team to us, so were hoping to win that match. We lost by four, which was quite disappointing. At the same time, it was very close, so it showed we are at a similar level to them. The last time we played them, we lost by 16 points, so we’re getting closer.”
Currently, Ireland are still well behind the world’s top teams in the sport. They will be watching on enviously when the Netball World Cup takes place next August in Sydney, with England, Australia and New Zealand among the favourites to prevail.
On what separates Ireland from these top tier nations, Murphy lists a variety of factors, while once again emphasising that positive changes are being implemented.
“Funding is a huge part of it. And their player base, [as well as the fact that] their players start at a much younger age — they’d be starting in primary school.
“And they would have a structure in place that would bring those athletes through to international level. A huge part of that is obviously funding programmes and employing people to coach them. We’ve certainly improved on that. Underage clubs 8-12 are now playing netball.”
(Credit: Netball Singapore)
So while they are unlikely to be world champions anytime soon, Irish netball is undoubtedly on the up, with the team winning admirers both at home and overseas.
“We had a huge support from the local school [in Singapore]. Even in the game against Singapore, we had just as much support from the locals. They’d come up and get your autograph and your photo and the girls on the team are really good — they’d always go over and chat with them.
“There were a good few [Irish] people who live and work there going to the matches and one or two of the girls, their partners or mums would have flown over. But it was mainly people living in Singapore supporting us.”
