Well it certainly has been a busy season... between working for Netball East as a Regional Talent Coach (part-time), being England Talent 2/U19 Coach and Mavericks Youth Head Coach, it has been a very hectic time! However, there must be one event that was pretty amazing, going to New Zealand with the England squad last Autumn.

In order to gain experience of what it is like to work at the top level I was given the opportunity to go to New Zealand and be a part of the touring squad. It seems like New Zealand is a different world when it comes to netball.
It is easy to see why people fall in love with that country and are tempted to move there permanently as the wide roads, less populated areas and community atmosphere are apparent as soon as you arrive but the one thing that made it appealing to me was the amount of attention that netball gets! As we driving the squad down to the venues you could see bill boards with the National Netball team sprawled across them, supported by a major super market! When we went shopping for supplies, the check out people were wearing bibs as a promotion for the test series (coming to their city) and there were cut out netballers standing next to you in the queue. The most amazing thing was everybody knowing about the netball... as walking through the shops or going to do the laundry I would be stopped (I was in a bright England tracksuit) and people would want to talk about the test series! A different world...
Surprisingly there was the live TV coverage. I have been to many test series and Super League events and have never seen anything on the scale of what I witnessed in NZ. As we sat on the bench competing against one of the best teams in the world, there were cameras hooked up on the coach and team constantly. The professionalism of the organising staff and media was immense.
Lastly... we beat New Zealand in New Zealand! It was absolutely amazing to be a part of the group that achieved this (although I know I had very little input into this achievement). The newspapers, radio and tv went netball nuts and it was just everywhere... I think I had imagined a world like this in a dream. Sonia Mkoloma was on the front page of their national news paper and the media attention was phenominal. Maybe one day we will have purpose build netball facilities and the media attention like this in England.

This Spring we have the England U19 team competing in the U21 European Championships in Glasgow and I am looking forwards to watching Test Series this February (which I would recommend for any netball fan) and also the conlusion to this Super League season as a Mavericks go from strength to strength.

The 2008/9 season has been fantastic so far and I look forwards to conclusion and taking bits of what I have learned back into NTL, Region and clubs as well as to camps and workshops. Hope to see you all soon!

Jo Munnion