Bull Sharks Sapphire Series coach Rebecca Stower got a unique perspective on her troops on the weekend – and she liked what she saw.
Stower also coaches the Queensland Under 19s side that won last year’s National Championships and they were the Bull Sharks’ opponents in a trial match at Nissan Arena over the weekend.
Stower took charge of the Queensland side, leaving her assistant Gavin Clarke to oversee the Bull Sharks.
And she took one of the Bull Sharks’ best representative players with her, Queensland U19s captain Jayden Molo.
With Sasha-May Flegler busy with Firebirds commitments, Dakota Newson was the only other representative player available, and it was decided she would suit up with the Bull Sharks to ensure there were two strong sides.
“It's not easy separating my hats at times, particularly with these two teams,” Stower said.
“Queensland were in a simulation weekend where we played four games over two days and Bond were our first cab off the rank.
“My eyes were purely on our Queensland preparations. The girls stood up really well and were able to implement game plan strategies against the older more experienced Bond outfit.”
While Stower’s focus courtside was firmly on her Maroons players, she later pored over the game tape and was pleased with the Bull Sharks’ performance, especially the way the side is building on-court connections and adding to its depth due to representative commitments for many key players.
“I reviewed the match footage in the evening to cast a critical eye over Bond and the team is tracking really well,” she said.
“We tried a number of different combinations out each quarter.
“To date we have not had our full complement at either training or trial games and the positive from that is we have seen some new connections being explored.
“It shows we will have a lot of depth once we hit the season with our full team.”
The Bull Sharks also took on the Gold Coast Suns Open Men's team in a trial match at Emmanuel College last week. The Suns are regularly utilised by SE Queensland’s two Super Netball franchises, the Firebirds and Lightning to run trials against.
“They are highly athletic, strong, fast and fit,” Stower said.
“They offer a different style to play against, challenging us to think outside the box and adapt our strategies.
“The girls stood up really well and I was excited to see what they put out on court.”
The Bull Sharks Ruby team have also been impressive in trials against the Suns’ U20s side and the Queensland U17s, dominating both encounters from the opening whistle.
Ruby coach Kim Boland said their connections were getting stronger with each hit-out and she was excited to see the results when the season begins in April.
“The athletes’ ability to connect on court has been very impressive no matter what combination we play,” she said.
“In all three areas of the court we have new athletes to our team so it’s great to see that our structures are starting to come together.
“We still have some areas to improve on but we feel confident these will all be ironed out before round one.”