UJ’s rising star Jodie Brown is still hopeful that her squad will slip out from their slump and win their remaining games after a difficult season has left them circling the bottom of the log table.
Having lost five consecutive games, the Auckland Park side have two rounds remaining to gain some valuable points and shake their title as the tournament’s Underdogs.
Brown reflects on their previous game against UP-Tuks in the fifth round of 2017 Varsity Netball.
“We knew that it was not going to be an easy game as all their players from the Brutal Fruit Jaguars team were coming back and we were going to face a stronger team than their USSA [University Sport South Africa] team. We tried our outmost to keep the score as close as possible but we made a few mistakes that cost us dearly. However, going into the next game against UWC, we know they are gunning to win so we really need to prepare mentally to see how far we can push ourselves for a positive result.”
The lanky goalkeeper said they have elements that need to be corrected before their next match.
“I think that the most important aspect is to keep our own centre passes plus every intercept and ball that we turn, we need to make that a shot in our advantage. We need to lessen our mistakes in terms of fewer obstructions and contact. Also our footwork, we need to play more in the centre of the court rather than the sides as teams can point out and capitalise on our weaknesses from there.”
Brown said they still face the same challenges they did last year but states that they are hopeful to make a change as the season nears its end.
“I see a different squad mainly because we have first years coming in and older seniors leaving, so there are new faces but in terms of our challenges, there are similar with last year’s one because we are pretty much the underdogs of every tournament. We finished third at the USSAs and that kind of put a name for us as UJ netball, and we have to try upkeep that status and I hope in these next two games we’ll be able to show the rest of the teams that we are capable competing against them.”
By Liziwe Mbha
