Hands up if you’ve ever played indoor netball. I’ll be honest, I’m not that familiar with it but according to England’s Indoor Netball Association the sport has been running successfully for 22 years in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and is played regularly by a staggering 90,000 adults and children.
In less than a week the INA England squad will be jetting off to South Africa for the Indoor Netball Tri-Nations tournament. The event will be held in Sun City from 12-21 March 2010 and England will enter 4 teams in the competition: Ladies, Mixed, Men and Under 21.
There are two versions of the sport: a 7-a side version, the rules of which are not too dissimilar from regular netball, and a 6-a-side version which is still netball, but not as we know it. Here to explain the rules and talk Oz v England is England INA squad member, Sarah Rees.
1. How did you get involved with netball and how long have you been playing?
I didn’t start netball until much later in life, in fact when I was 20 at university someone asked me to fill in for their mixed team, so I did, and I loved it, so after a couple of years I tried out for state league and made it into Altona State League. Altona recently merged with another state league team VU flames, to become VU Western Lightning – http://vuwesternlightning.vnl.com.au/ . My incredibly awesome coach Joy Grubb – who taught me everything I know, is still coaching them now. She reminds me a little of my Premier League coach Pat Watson, though Joy’s probably a bit scarier.
2. How does indoor netball differ from regular netball?
7 a side indoor netball is basically the same as regular netball, except the court is a bit smaller, and you have nets around the court, the ball can come off the net in certain situations and play on, though the player can’t use the net to their advantage. There’s some great explanations on the INA website about the rules http://www.ina-england.co.uk. 6 a side matches, however, are completely different, the court is divided into halves, you have two defence, two centres, and two attack, and the centres can shoot from outside the circle for two goals. It has certainly taken me a while to adapt to this style of play, as the tactical side of things is completely different from a defence point of view, and in fact, at training a couple of weeks ago I went into playing attack… though not for my shooting skills that’s for sure!
3. You’ve had to fund the tour to South Africa yourselves, how difficult has that been and what sort of fundraisers have been organised?
Funding ourselves has been a major strain on the whole team, and we’ve worked incredibly hard to try and cover our expenses. We’ve organised two fundraising tournaments in Canary Wharf at Play On sports that were a fantastic success, and we cant’ thank the people that turned up and played enough for their support. In addition to this we held a quiz night recently at Temple Walkabout that was also a huge success, and it’s fair to say that none of this would have happened without the awesome team that I’m privileged to be part of, they’re a great bunch of people and I can’t wait to go away on tour with them all! Finally in terms of sponsorship I personally have been very lucky in that the children and staff at my school held a casual clothes day fundraiser last Friday to help me raise money for my tour, my school has been immensely supportive – and proud!- of my efforts in representing England at the INA tournament.
4. You also play Premier League netball for New Cambell, so how do you combine that with working full time, playing indoor netball and training for the INA World Champs?
This has been tricky at times as I haven’t wanted to see my INA commitments clash with my Premier League training or matches, and I’ve been pretty lucky with training schedules that haven’t really clashed, and I’ll only miss one prem game while I’m away on tour. I think the hardest thing is dragging yourself to training when you’ve worked a really long day, it’s hard to motivate when you just want to get home and chill on the sofa, but you just have to keep remembering the end goal. It also helps that I’m not someone who can stand to be bored, I have to be doing something!
5. Back home in your native Australia you’ve played at State level, what was it like playing against the likes of Australian Diamond Sharelle McMahon?
I find it’s the same in Australia or the UK when you’re playing ‘big name’ players, some of the team tend to get themselves worked up about who they’re playing or what they’ll do, I prefer just to go out on court each time as a new experience and forget the reputation of the player I’m against, each match is a new opportunity, you don’t know what they’ll be like on the day so there’s no point worrying about it, you just get out there and do your job. Having said that, Sharelle is pretty amazing though hey! I think we missed her this series in the ‘regular’ netball. She’s an incredibly talented netballer, and yet really down to earth, I remember coaching my primary school team in Aus, and she came out one day to help us at training and give us some tips on our way to the national champs, she’s not only an awesome player, but a lovely person, and it helps to keep that in mind when you come up against opposition players with big reputations – they’re just people too!
6. How do you find playing netball in the UK compared with playing in Australia?
I find that netball in the UK is just getting better and better. Unfortunately it just doesn’t get the same coverage media wise as it does in Aus and NZ, but I think now having UK players going over to play in the Trans Tasman series will benefit everyone in terms of the development of our sport. There just is no getting around the fact that the English media do not want to celebrate netball. It’s not all about football people!
7. Do you have any aspirations to play for a Superleague team?
I did try out for Mavericks a couple of years back with my Cambell Prem team mates Holly, Gemma and Clare. I played terribly during the try outs which obviously led to me not getting into the squad, but in hindsight it probably was for the best, with work commitments I don’t think I could’ve committed to what would have been required of me, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise. Also, it was after that I began filling in for a friend’s indoor netball team, so it certainly turned out for the best for me!
8. How did you rate England’s performances against Australia in the recent Test Series?
Ohhh that’s a hard one, my loyalties took some testing here! I was so pleased for England playing so well, though I must admit I was on the edge of my seat that Tuesday night at the O2, I thought the Aussies were really in trouble, only to pull it back right at the last minute. I guess that’s something to keep in mind as we head to South Africa, you can’t let down your guard for a minute. I did think England did really well, and are certainly the team to watch. It’s no longer just the Aussies and Kiwis dominating, which I think is a great thing for our sport.
Netball Match: Thanks Sarah for taking the time to do this interview
If you’d like to send any messages of support to the England INA team, you can send them either via the INA website or the Netball Match Facebook page. Depending on an internet connection Sarah will try to blog about the tour and send back some pictures.
Have you ever played indoor netball and what did you think of it?
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