Bernard defends hiring of McIntosh

President of the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA), Marva Bernard, has defended her administration's decision to employ Jill McIntosh as technical director of the national programme just months before the Sunshine Girls departed for their ill-fated World Netball Championships (WNC) campaign in Singapore.

The JNA was widely criticised by many persons in local netball circles for the hiring of McIntosh, whose contract ended two weeks ahead of the championships, while the Austra-lian was also blamed for Jamaica's poor showing at the tournament.

McIntosh, a winning WNC coach with her native country, implemented a number of new policies within the JNA, one of which stated that all the coaches must apply for the job of head coach. This led to the axing of former head coach Connie Francis, who was highly critical of McIntosh's training methods and tactics. Francis had previously led the Sunshine Girls to bronze medals at the last two WNC.

However, yesterday, in a press briefing held at the Sports Develop-ment Foundation on Phoenix Avenue in St Andrew, Bernard defended the move to bring McIntosh in describing it as "a good one".

"The decision to hire a technical director was taken by the JNA Council after deliberately and carefully responding to a collective request for her services from the head coach Connie Francis and the players," said Bernard.

"This request was made after the Australia and New Zealand tours in August and the England series in September 2010 and heightened after the results of the Commonwealth Games in October 2010," she said.

Improved technical support

Continuing Bernard said: "We specifically requested Jill because we were familiar with her methods and believed they would get the improved technical support for the team that was desired."

McIntosh, who was reportedly paid $2.1 million by the JNA for her services, worked as the technical director of the Singapore team, prior to the start of the WNC.

This also angered a lot of local fans who were of the view that McIntosh should have been a part of Jamaica's coaching staff at the championship, since she was the one giving instructions to the coaches months ahead of their departure for the tournament.

Despite this, Bernard added her association has benefited a lot from McIntosh's expertise, even though they were unable to retain their bronze placing at the championship.

- R.B.