Redemption year for Sunshine Girls - Forbes

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

After a disastrous 2010, this year is one of redemption for Jamaica's Sunshine Girls.

This is the proclamation of team captain Simone Forbes, ahead of the team's high-profile clash against world leaders Australia in this month's Supreme Ventures Sunshine Series, that will be played inside the National Indoor Sports Centre.

The team suffered heavy defeats to Australia and New Zealand in a pair of series Down Under, before a miserable fourth-place finish at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, where they lost by 23 points to England in the third-place match.

The Girls also failed to make amends at the World Netball Series (Fastnet), finishing third, despite not losing a game at the preliminary level.

With the World Netball Championships also scheduled for later this year, Forbes believes the opportunity is ripe for her charges to right the wrongs of the past year and rebuild pride and belief in the programme.

Year of redemption

She labelled last year as Jamaica's worst in recent netball history, but is confident that the team will be able to turn the tide this time around.

"I definitely believe this is a year of redemption for us," said Francis, ahead of one of the team's training session earlier this week.

"It's going to be a very challenging year, but I think we are at a point where it can't get any worse, at least in my mind. So we have nowhere to go but upwards from this point, and from what I am seeing and hearing from the ladies, we are all just focused on doing well this year."

Referring to the results of the past year, Forbes said they were "embarrassing".

"It was really embarrassing," she said. "None of us expected to do that poorly, but we try to learn from every experience and we have certainly learnt, and hopefully it will help us to prepare better for this year.

"The Jamaica national netball team has done worse in years gone by, but since we have been doing well, this has been one of our worst levels," she added.

"In 2007, after the Australia/New Zealand series, we had the redemption with the World Championships where we came third, so that year finished off well for us, but this year we had the Commonwealth Games to try and repeat that and it didn't happen for us," said Forbes.

The Australians' arrival is just around the corner and there is reportedly discussion to see other teams come. But while she considers the upcoming series a crucial element to her team's World Netball Championships pursuit, Forbes already has one eye squarely focused on the July 3-10 tournament.

"It's going to be busy but it's not all business as usual for us," Forbes noted. "With Jill (McIntosh) coming and with the five coaches instead of two, and the additional days of training, I know it's going to be challenging for everyone and it will take a lot of sacrifice, but I think we are all ready and willing to make the effort and see how best we can give up ourselves for the programme.

"The World Championships is what we hope to make the cherry on the cake. We hope to be in the final and it's something that we are looking forward to and working towards," Forbes closed.