'Girls must score many goals in semis'

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

NEWTON, Singapore

Former technical director of Jamaica's netball, Australian Jill McIntosh, has called on the Sunshine Girls to stay focused and play a very disciplined game if they hope to get past defending champions Australia in the semi-finals of this year's Mission of Foods World Netball Championships (WNC) on Saturday.

McIntosh told The Gleaner, following Jamaica's 93-40 victory over Singapore, that she has been very pleased with their performance in the tournament so far, but they will have to step it up a notch when they face the Australians in the semi-finals.

The Jamaicans, who won the bronze medal at the last tournament held in Auckland, New Zealand, are scheduled to play Caribbean rivals Trinidad and Tobago in quarter-final action this morning (Jamaica time).

"I think they need to eliminate unforced errors, which include bad passes and dropped catches, and they have got to score goals. If they score a lot of goals, then they will be there, but they must get the ball into the shooters," said McIntosh, who is a winning WNC coach with native country, Australia.

"I am sure coach Oberon (Pitterson) will be working on some small things so on semi-final day, hopefully, they will have a perfect game," McIntosh said.

Signs of improvement

McIntosh, who is now the technical consultant to the Singapore netball team, added that the Sunshine Girls, who are two places below the Australians in the world rankings, are showing signs of improvement as the tournament progresses.

"They are coming on and they are throwing the ball nicely into Romelda (Aiken) and to Jhaniele Fowler, but sometimes those throws are a little bit too long and they need to work it closer to the circle before they put the high ball up," McIntosh said.

"I think the defenders have been getting some good turnover balls and I think centre court has been working very hard to get the ball through," McIntosh concluded.