Coach Murdock hails players after fifth place at Fast5 Series

CO-COACH OF the Sunshine Girls netball team, Shawn Murdock, has praised the players after they finished fifth at the Fast5 World Series tournament, which ended yesterday (Jamaica time) at the Christchurch Arena in New Zealand.

Jamaica who started the tournament with a brilliant 38-36 victory over defending champions Australia, defeated Malawi 36-31 in the playoff for fifth and sixth at the two-day tournament. The Sunshine Girls ended the tournament with three wins overall.

Jamaica’s fifth-place finish bettered the performance of a year ago at the same venue, where they failed to win a single game and finished at the bottom of the table.

Australia, whose only loss at the tournament came in that defeat by Jamaica, went on to retain their title after an easy 35-23 win over hosts New Zealand in the final. England ended third after stopping South Africa 30-22 in the third place playoff.

“Nicole and I wanted to do better than we did last year, and we ticked the box here. As a team we believe that it was well within our reach.” said Murdock who shared coaching duties with Nicole Aiken-Pinnock.

“That lofty goal of a podium finish, however, got derailed as our plans fell apart after our brilliant start against Australia,” added Murdock.

He is still happy with the performances during the tournament.

“We are very proud of the ladies. As a country, we are spoilt for success, and that success is measured by winning medals at world tournaments, so that is some disappointment - how it ended after our brilliant start,” he said.

Winning three games and beating Australia were proud moments for coach Murdock.

“We ended with three wins from six games, and that is an improvement from last year when we failed to win a single game. We were the only team to beat Australia and to beat them in any version of netball is a major feat as they are the powerhouses of world netball,” said Murdock, who stated that Jamaica have got the better of the Australians in a few tournaments in the last year and a half.

For the future, they are hoping to learn from the defeats.

“From the losses, we have taken lessons, and we are just reflecting on the positives as we motivate the ladies to keep getting better,” Murdock said.

Members of the squad were Theresa Beckford, Rhea Dixon, Amanda Pinkney, Crystal Plummer, Abigale Sutherland, Abbeygail Linton, Kide Shaw, Aedean Thomas, Gezelle Allison, and Romelda Aiken-George.