Having started their Origin Energy Premier League journey with a bang in 2016 when winning the Under 20s title, it's been a while between drinks for the Panthers.
As it did for every other franchise, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a spanner in the works for this season but that didn’t stop Panthers from bringing in some big guns to inspire their up-and-coming talent during the lockdown.
“We had guest Zoom sessions with Super Netball players Paige Hadley, Sam Poolman, Amy Parmenter, Keira Austin and April Brandley on topics such as: the challenges of training in isolation, team culture and values, and player roles and responsibilities,” High Performance Manger, and former NSW Swifts coach, Lisa Beehag OAM says.
“Due to the incredibly short number of training sessions allowed with contact, our physios produced videos of contact work that could be done with a family member so we did not breech isolation health orders.
“When players could physically train with another person they met outdoors to complete sessions which did not involve physical contact.
“Players shared videos of these small group sessions with each other and also completed sessions together whilst linked into Zoom with the team or a training buddy.”
This year has certainly been one for thinking outside the box and it is also a watershed for the Panthers. Now it’s about looking to the future, and while Premiership success might elude them in the short term, they are willing to play the long game.
“We set this year to be a new beginning and set up sound foundations moving forward,” Beehag adds.
“Due to the very long unconventional pre-season we are now able to look at what the future looks like for a very new cohort of players, some of which have never had the opportunity to play at this level before.”
The Panthers’ Opens side have only registered one win so far this season while their Under 23s have four wins from eight outings. However, success must be built over a period of time and the foundation years are often the toughest. So what is the key goal for 2020?
“Building,” Beehag says. “We have new combinations and are looking to consolidate and grow on and off court.
“We are looking to establish connection and culture with our new coaching setup.
“We look forward to being a franchise that showcases a brand of netball that is exciting to watch with players and teams establishing a solid framework that grows, projecting us forward as a franchise to be reckoned with in 2021 and onwards.”
The Under 23s are showing they can match it with the best and recently got one over their old rivals the Sparks. The sides contested Grand Finals in 2016 and 2017, coming out with one win each, but Beehag says the Panthers “don’t put any extra effort into a Sparks match in comparison to others”.
The Opens have had a tough run of late, but time is on their side.
“With a very new line up selected at the end of 2019 along with a new coach, we identified early there was going to be a great need for time together on court in preparation for the competition.
“Due to COVID-19 and the very limited time we had to develop, our teams’ measure of success for season 2020 had to be reviewed and new benchmarks established.
“High priority was to given to keeping the players fit and healthy both physically and mentally.
“We have worked to establish the style of netball we want to deliver, and each week we work to problem solve around the areas that continue to need fine tuning.
“We’ve had some great performances against some quality teams. These games, along with those results that were not so close, have provided us with integral learnings about ourselves and our competition.
“These learnings are what we will use to propel us forward.”
