The past couple of weeks has seen four of the top netballing nations in the world compete in The Quad Series. Reigning champions, Australia, were favourites to take another clean sweep but with a relatively inexperienced team the trophy was up for grabs. The Silver Ferns always provide quality netball and fierce competition for the Diamonds. The Ferns took a heavy blow to the England Roses who fought hard to get an important win. Jo Harten was not present in the England squad, but there was some great circle work from Kadeen Corbin and Helen Housby to push the Roses forward to that important victory.
South Africa were on a mission this Quad Series. They are letting the netballing world know that they are a force to be reckoned with. Under the guidance of coach mentor Norma Plummer, they came away with a historic Quad Series. Not only were they hot on the tail of The Diamonds but The Proteas defeated The Roses in a historic victory. This is the first victory for The Proteas in the Quad Series as well as the best performance Netball South Africa has seen in nearly 50 years. Players such as Karla Mostert and Bongiwe Msomi have seen the benefit of playing in Elite leagues such as Suncorp Super Netball and Vitality Super League with shining performances throughout.
The showdown for first place was between long time rivals Australia and New Zealand. The Diamonds and The Ferns were both hungry for this trophy. With Maria Tutaia still absent due to personal reasons, there were doubts that The Ferns attacking circle were able to hold up to the strength of the Diamonds defence. The Ferns were ferocious from the start and took the win by a massive 10 goals for the Quad Series Trophy.
So... What does this mean for international netball? Jamaica have been pretty quiet since the head coach resigned and shooting star, Romilda Aiken, has also made herself unavailable for events including the upcoming Fast5 series. Fiji have also been making noise and will be competing in the Netball Europe competition by invitation. They will be joined by Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. In the meantime, there will be little rest time in the England and New Zealand camp as the Taini Jamison Trophy competition begins on Thursday 7th of September.
Exciting times are coming for international netball as gaps are closing between the top teams.
