Regional rewards for relegated Team Jets?

Regional rewards for relegated Team Jets?

The Island club relinquished their national league status after losing a crucial England Netball play-off on Sunday, but their head coach says dropping back into the regional system for 2019/20 will prove beneficial to development efforts.

Jets have relied increasingly on the skills of youth players since 2017, during a transitional period which has followed the club’s meteoric rise to as high as fifth in PL2.

‘Looking at the positive side of it, the regional leagues will give us the opportunity to play more girls,’ said Andrews.

‘The under-16s usually come in as training partners, but now there will be more opportunities for them to get court time and it’ll be more progressive, rather than it being a massive step straight into the Premier League.’

Andrews has also taken time to reflect on the achievements of players past and present, against clubs with a much larger talent pool.

‘When you put it into context, we’re a really small club, she said.

‘We’re tiny compared to all these other clubs playing in the Premier League. Most of them have seven or eight teams in their club and at the play-offs it was quite apparent. We only had 11 girls, but a lot of the others had 17 or 18 and rotated all weekend. They always had fresh legs coming on.

‘I think we’ve done remarkably well to be sustainable for five years in the Premier League with such a small group.’

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