Sunshine Girls coach turns attention to Australia

Head coach of the national senior netball team, Sasher-Gaye Henry, says the Sunshine Girls’ upcoming three-Test series against world number one Australia will play a vital role in the team’s preparation for the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

The series will mark the first time the Sunshine Girls and Australia will compete in a standalone series since 2011.

The series will tip off on February 5 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, before moving to Perth’s RAC Arena on February 8 for the second encounter. The final match will be contested on February 11 at Melbourne’s John Cain Arena.

Henry said that this assignment will be a demanding one, but believes it is exactly the type of challenge her team needs at this stage of their development.

“It is going to be a tough series, as all series are tough because Australia is number one in the world, and so we are expecting to put forward a strong team because we definitely want to go there and give a good account of ourselves,” Henry said.

She emphasised the importance of the series in helping the Sunshine Girls measure themselves against elite opposition as they build towards next year’s Commonwealth Games.

“I think this series is massive for us because heading into the Commonwealth Games next year, we really want to see what we are going to come up against, and so the more that we play at this level is the better for us, understand and learn from it and grow from it. So is a very big one for us and it is ranking series, so we definitely want to put our best team forward,” Henry stated.

She added that the coaching staff is already focused on addressing weaknesses exposed in recent outings.

“We are definitely looking to get back in our training and fix some of the things that we really need to fix.”

The Sunshine Girls are coming off a 2-0 defeat to hosts England, a series in which they were without several senior players. However, Henry noted that the squad for the Australia tour is expected to be significantly strengthened, with a number of experienced players set to return to the national fold.

“We will definitely have back some of our senior players for this series. Our selectors have been working, and the squad for this series will be announced this week. Not everybody will be back for this series, but I know that a few of them will be back.”