When getting your season up and running in any format is a big success in the Covid19 world, being in the running for Finals netball is an additional bonus.
However that’s where North Shore United find themselves after the pre-season to end all pre-seasons ahead of the 2020 Origin Energy Premier League.
“We feel that as a franchise, we are extremely fortunate to be playing Premier League this year as it is the pinnacle of competition for netballers within NSW,” United Opens coach Bec Bulley said.
“The competition gives our players an opportunity to pit themselves up against some of the best in the game and to showcase their talent to a wider audience.”
A Premiership winner with the NSW Swifts, a World Cup winner with the Australian Diamonds and foundation player for the GIANTS, Bulley has been making strides in her coaching career.
Her United Opens team have won nine of their 12 games so far and sit second in Conference A, set to play the 2020 playoffs.
The Under 23s, under the tutelage of Col Mitchell, are also in second of Conference A in their competition and sitting pretty for a Finals spot.
It’s a remarkable turnaround for the franchise given both teams missed out on the business end of the season last year.
“At the start of the year we were looking forward to seeing both our teams improve on their standing from the 2019 season and to seeing our players developing their skills and improving as a team in every game,” Bulley adds.
Improvement has certainly come in spades for a franchise still in search of their maiden Opens Premiership. Last week was a litmus test, against the reigning champion ERNA Hawks, and they came through it with a 49-40 win.
This week the United Opens face GWS Fury and will look to head into the Finals with some momentum.
The Under 23s, who won a title in 2018 – when the competition was the Under 20s – know that winning a second title in three years will be a very difficult task. And a new challenger has emerged in 2020.
“The 23s Competition is pretty close, and there have been no easy games,” Mitchell adds.
“So, if we were to make the Grand Final I can only say, that I think it would be a great game and it would showcase the talent that Netball NSW has coming through the junior ranks.
“I think the team to keep looking at, based on current on form, is South Coast Blaze. The majority of those girls have had finals experience with other franchises.
“Our game against them was a close one, and it has given us a benchmark to know where we have to be to remain competitive for the remainder of 2020.”
Reaching Finals time is no easy feat, but you have to be in it to win it and North Shore United are firing in with both cylinders.
