Gastro, security, and lights out – Silver Ferns prepare for it all

Grace Nweke of New Zealand shoots as Phumza Maweni of South Africa tries to stop her during the 2023 Netball Quad Series game between South Africa and New Zealand at the CTICC in Cape Town on 21 January 2023 © Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix/ www.photosport.nz
Photo: Backpage / www.photosport.nz

No stone has been left unturned as the team behind the Silver Ferns gear up for the first Netball World Cup on African soil, which could come with its own unique challenges.

The players and management learnt a lot from the Quad Series in January, which served as a dry run for the World Cup in Cape Town starting late next month.

Unfortunately a lot of Silver Ferns players came back with gastro from that series.

Many Australian Diamonds players also fell victim to tummy bugs while they were over there, which saw midcourter Ash Brazill miss the first Test.

Netball New Zealand head of high performance Stephen Hotter, who started in the role in March, said a lot of work has been done on medical plans.

“We’ve got an illness management protocol around how we deal with any sort of illness that comes up. With gastro I suppose that’s a risk wherever you go, just being mindful of the food we’re eating and what we’re drinking et cetera during the time we’re over there is going to be a big part of managing that.

“Simple things that we’ve learnt through Covid, washing hands all those sort of basic things as well to make sure that we try and stay on top of any illness because illness is just as bad as injury I suppose, if it went through the camp it could have some ramifications,” Hotter said.

“But I feel like we’re well on top of that based on the protocols that are in place now.”

Netball World Cup 2019 winners, the Silver Ferns.
Photo: © SWpix.com (t/a Photography Hub Ltd)

Hotter is very familiar with the environment, having been to the two previous World Cups as the lead strength and conditioning coach for the Silver Ferns between 2012 and 2020.

Silver Ferns team manager Esther Molloy also went to Cape Town last year to do a lot of reconnaissance work.

“So we’re feeling pretty comfortable with where we’re at,” Hotter said.

The Silver Ferns will be staying at the same hotel they were at in January, which is close to the venue.

He said as a result of the series, the local organisers also learnt a lot and “South Africa Netball and the organising committee have been really positive in our interactions with them.”

The Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) is a multi-purpose venue that will be re-configured to host the World Cup.

In 2019, when South Africa won the rights to host the World Cup, its bid said the venue could be reset to a single court layout with a seating capacity of 7000, after the preliminary rounds.

But in February this year the tournament director told SABC Sport the main court would only have a 5000-seat capacity through the whole tournament.

Netball New Zealand head of high performance Stephen Hotter.
Photo: Netball New Zealand

It’s rather modest compared to the 2011 World Cup venue in Singapore, which seated 8,000 for the finals. In Sydney four years later the final was attended by a record 16,752, and in 2019 in Liverpool 8,000 people were able to watch the final.

Captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio said it was good to get a taste of what the arena is going to be like.

“The stadium is really loud in itself it kind of really echoes. The crowd isn’t huge, it was nothing like what we experienced over in Liverpool …but noise is definitely still there. And when we played South Africa it was really loud, they really got behind their home country,” Ekenasio said.

Rolling power outages are a part of daily life for most South Africans.

After years of neglect to infrastructure, there is an energy crisis in South Africa which leaves the country with daily rationing of electricity to stop the national grid collapsing.

For up to 10 hours a day, Cape Town can go without any electricity.

Hotter said load shedding had been going on for quite some time in the country and most hotels and key infrastructure would not be affected.

“Where we’re staying, it has its own generator. Most of the shedding also goes on during the middle of the night so we don’t believe that that’s going to be a massive risk for us.

“And I believe we’re on the same power grid as the hospital so the likelihood of shedding being a big risk is low and especially given that they’ve got their own generators,” Hotter said.

South Africa and New Zealand in a huddle after the 2023 Netball Quad Series game between South Africa and New Zealand at the CTICC in Cape Town on 21 January 2023 © Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix
Photo: BackpagePix

In promotional material the Cape Town International Convention Centre said it had a number of generators that kick in if any power outages occur.

Diamonds coach Stacey Marinkovich told Netball Scoop in April that the team benches were entwined with part of the crowd at the Quad Series but was confident that was going to be addressed after it was raised from a security point of view.

In his previous role with the Silver Ferns, Hotter has been to Johannesburg and Durban and said it was standard practice to have a security plan in place around the team.

“We’ve used a liaison manager on previous tours and he’ll be with us again, even back when I was touring in 2017 he was with us and he provides us with all the local knowledge we need so we will be in very good hands with him.”

Hotter said they were going to focus on controlling what they can control and said the organising committee in South Africa had been excellent.

“Our management team [will] do everything so that the players can focus on putting performance out on court really. There’s always risk management that goes into every tour and so this is no different, we plan the same way for every tour.

“I think this is an exciting opportunity to go there and try and win the World Cup again and they [Netball South Africa] are excited about having the 16 nations all converging in Cape Town and want to put on a memorable tournament.”

The Silver Ferns have got three camps before they depart for South Africa on July 20th.