TKPS SENIORS VS UNITY PRIMARY

In the afternoon, it was the Seniors match against Unity Primary. Our coach Mr Njoo was confident of the Seniors winning the game because they had gone through rigourous training sessions during the holidays with the full squad. Learning their mistakes from the Cross Straits Tournament, their training was mainly on correcting their mistakes and changing their style of playing for the better.

We went to Co-curricular Activities Branch (where the matches were held) early so the netballers had more time to warm-up. Finally, the netballers took their places and looked intentively at the ball. "BEEP!" the match started. The game started out smoothly. The Seniors swiftly scored 10 goals while Unity Primary only scored 2 in the first quarter. The Seniors got more energized by their lead and played better and better. At the end of the second quarter, the score was 21-4 (with TKPS leading). Our netballers' defence were great in the third quarter, making it hard for Unity Primary to attack. So, while Unity Primary were 'held back', the GA and GS were busy shooting. The score for the third quarter was 31-4. During the last quarter, Unity Primary made a come-back and shot 4 more goals. However, it was too late as they were very far behind. In the end, the Seniors won the game 39-8 hands-down.

From the coach's table:

The seniors had three sessions of training after the Cross Straits Tournament where they lost to St Margs in the final by one point. We tried to rectify our attacking style consisting of more short passes and more leads. This style requires speed as well as stamina and the players have to be 'on the move' at all times. Previously, we gave away possession too easily, throwing aimless long passes that were easily intercepted by the opponents. With this new style, we were able to keep the ball on our side and create more scoring opportunities.This opening game was a good test for us to try out our new attacking style and I must say I'm impressed with the tactical awareness the girls showed me. Towards the end with the score in our favour, I made a few changes and let the subs play.

Our next match against OLN will be a tough one. OLN have very tall players and they tend to lob from one end to the other end. In order to stop them from scoring, my centre, goal defence and wing defence must stop the opponent from feeding the shooters with lobs as my goal keeper will not be able to intercept those high balls. I have confidence in my players and we seriously hope to avenge the defeat last year during the 3rd/4th placing match that we lost. We have waited for one year and the time is now for us to exorcise those demons!