Thunder continue winning and Neville insists best is yet to come
To wrap up round 2 of The FIAT Netball Superleague we have match reaction from Monday night’s game between Team Bath and Northern Thunder. With both sides in action over the weekend, read the thoughts of Jess Garland and Tracey Neville as they reflect on the match action and look ahead to the challenges that this fiercely competitive season is already presenting.’
Northern Thunder secured their second win a row with victory over Team Bath on Monday Night as they keep up an emphatic start to 2012 which has yet to see them taste defeat in all forms of netball. Head Coach Tracey Neville was delighted with the win but admitted her side are yet to perform at their best. She said “I think that we started the game well which we didn’t do against Yorkshire Jets, I thought our third quarter was excellent, we haven’t yet learnt how to finish a game but for me it’s a learning curve. I got eleven of my squad players on, we moved forward; we got opportunities to see combinations, to see what players were up for it. Fair credit to Team Bath they came out hard, they actually put out probably a consistent performance and for me, I thought Kadeen Corbin was excellent and she really punished our defenders.
“You don’t want the final product now and our team have got to build, bearing in mind we have got five new players in the squad this year and we have to see how they gel. We have not yet found our form although we did at Fast Net that is over 24 minutes and we are actually playing for 24 minutes, we just need to play for the rest of the time now and take our game on. We have to work on our last quarter because when we play teams like Surrey Storm and Mavericks you saw that’s when they can come back at you, with the shooters and the experience that they have got in their team, that’s what we have got to work on. We are a team that have got new combinations and I am trying to find out my form in regards to the best seven and where we go forward.”
Neville’s side were impressive in victory and the ex-England star reflected on an improved showing from previous years, she reflected “Looking at Northern Thunder of the last few seasons, they have really had tough games here against Team Bath, with their home crowd and I thought the crowd was excellent. We looked a little bit tired today and there are reasons for that and these are things we are going to address and move our team forward.”
Team Bath Coach Jess Garland insists that her side look strong, but they are not showing this class consistently enough. She admitted “We didn’t turn up at times, we arrived in the game more towards the second half which was quite impressive, we outscored them 6-1 to pull ourselves back to within eight. I was really pleased with the final quarter and that we were able to bring it back to a respectable score, it’s a difficult one for me, I think it’s an opportunity missed, I think we got the ball back off them enough to win the game. I’m not just saying that because it’s difficult, it could easily have run away to a 20 goals lose as well. I think it’s just that type of season which is fantastic for the league, I just think that defensively we were too loose in the first half and just made too many errors.
There were many changes made from both coaches during the match which arguably affected the tempo of the match but Garland has no misgivings in utilising the depth in her squad. She said “it’s important this early on in the season to put some other players out there when we hit some of the other competitive matches I need to know what we have got on the bench so I don’t regret giving some other opportunities tonight. The third quarter changes didn’t have the desired impact in terms of the score line but I don’t regret giving other the opportunity in what has to be favoured to be one of the teams to go on and finish in that top four.”
Next up for the most successful team in Superleague history is a tricky home tie against Surrey Storm but Garland sees it as a positive to have got such a tough set of fixtures at the start of the season, she revealed “This year you just have to wipe the slate clean and give everybody the respect that they deserve. We will certainly be doing that, there is no game we have earmarked as being a win on paper. You have got to earn the right to do that and in the first couple games, especially with Surrey we have some really tough teams. Celtic with their imports are a really tough team, if you make a mistake it often goes down the other end and into a goal and then to hit Thunder and Surrey, both expected to finish in the top two, then for me it’s a great thing as its preparing us best for some more competitive games.”