World shooters

are hard to beat

By Angela McCarthy

THE Cook Island netballers play with style their shooting is nearly faultless, their ball handling effortless, and their approach exuberant.

They look good and they are good they are seeded fifth in the world, and have held the South Pacific Games netball gold medal for the past 10 years, This month, they are heading to the South Pacific Games in Papua New

Guinea to ‘Go for Gold’

again, despite uncertainty

over the safety of the Papua New Guinea venue. The

captain, 26-year-old Selina

Matenga, says making the decision to go to PNG was difficult. “Even now I feel nervous about it, but everyone feels that we should to try and retain the gold, and as this year is my 10th national level year I want it to be a good one.”

The Cook Islands Net ball Association called the representative players and their families to a meeting where the matter of Papua New Guinea was discussed extensively. By the end of the meeting a collective decision was made that the netballers should go.

“WeTe concerned but I think it will be safe enough.

The gold is nothing com pared to our lives but the feeling to go is very posi tive” says player/coach

Margharet Matenga.

Matenga, who returned to the Cook Islands in 1989 after representing New Zealand for eight years, said: “PNG, in particular, will be hard because its their homeground and that is a a big advantage, and PNG are the silver medal holders at present.”

Margharet and Selina, who are sister-in-laws, both commented on the im provement in the Papua New Guinea team, attribu ting a lot of it to their association this year with the Australia Institute of Sport. They say the PNG team’s style showed a strong Australian influ ence, and the Cook Island ers’ style is similar to their New Zealand counterparts.

New Zealand involve ment with the Cook Islands Netball Association has

been predominantly in coaching and umpiring clinics. There are no imports in the Cook Islands national side and it is something the Cook Island Netball Association are justly proud of. All the players’ careers began in Cook Island club netball, which has 700 players, Three of the 1991 representatives have spent a couple of years in New Zealand for educational reasons, with Selina Matenga representing New Zea

Hands up: goalkeeper Raera Vano defends for Cooks

land in the Under-21 squad for the two years she lived in Wellington.

Margharet Matenga and her sister Inangaro Kamana both lived in new Zealand a number of years but their netball grounding was in Rarotonga.

Tina Browne, who is President of the Cook Island Netball Association and the Oceania Netball Federation, feels that the high calibre of netball has come from the development of a natural ability with the ball and with co-ordination. “If you go ihto a primary school here, even at that level the children seem to know their footwork, they don’t step, and they know how to pass. Wc don’t labour at that level. The development of netball has come from how we develop those skills.”

Margharet Matenga agrees: “I’ve

been back two years and I’m amazed at

the standard.” However Margharet Matenga and Tina Browne have mixed feelings about the mental attitude of the Cook Island Players. Said Browne: “We are naturally not serious people. Five years ago it was foreign to say to players that they needed to really think hard about the game, although now it is starting to happen. At the 1987 (World) Tournament in Scotland we’d be singing and joking all the way to the courts the other teams attitude was so much more serious yet we came 6th equal.

If we really want to reach the top three placings, then we have to know how to mentally prepare ourselves for such

pressure.”

Said Margharet: “We’re so easy going, but the ability is there. You look at New Zealand and they’re fitter and quicker.

Our casualness is a problem. The younger ones in our team are still very young and have to think seriously about setting goals for themselves. The older ones have got that concentration now

though.”

A highlight of the World Tournament was the world record 120-38 thrashing Cook Islands gave Vanuatu. New rep,

lanky 17-year-old Angela Maoate,

scored 102 goals.

Assistant coach Teparekura Mavi and Margharet have based training for the South Pacific Games on a mixture of courtwork, ball handling, gym workout and camp training. Their main rivals are Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Fiji last won the gold in Suva in 1979 and lost it again to Cook Islands for the silver in 1983 in Apia. Fierce rivals, Fiji and Cook Islands are bound to play the final again. □