The Netball Show
S7 Ep40: NWC 5 Year Ani : Claire Maxwell (18th July 2024)
(upbeat music) - This is Stacey Francis-Bainman. Is your club looking for new kit? Don't forget to try the 3D kit designer online at flyhork.com. - The netball show with flyhork. Raising the bar for netball and winning sports. - I'm actually looking back at netball World Cup 2019. And Claire, I suppose the first question is, does it seem like five years ago? - It doesn't, it doesn't, it seems like a lifetime ago, but at the same time the memories are so rich in my head that it doesn't seem that long ago. It was an amazing experience from start to finish. - What about some of those initial memories then? - The crowds were the big one. It didn't matter which game it was, what time of day it was. Even the game is when there was no home nations competing. The stadium was packed. That was definitely one of them. And my second one, which I'll never forget was Zimbabwe. We were staying in a hotel right opposite the arena and they're staying in dancing and just what they brought to that tournament was pretty special as well. - It's always special to obviously represent your country internationally as well. I'd suggest that maybe the World Cup is right up there. - Yeah, my favourite international competitions without a doubt has been the one that's been held in the UK. So Glasgow 2014, Liverpool 2019 for the Commonwealth Games and obviously the World Cup were my favourites, 100%. I thought the crowds that both were absolutely insane. Having your family there is second to none. Having people been able to watch regular hours of the day and just the backing it got was really impressive and to have as many people as we've had get behind the sport has been amazing. - What were your initial thoughts when you saw you were in Group D that included England? - It's funny, we hit England quite often in the major competitions. So we're very familiar, we're very familiar with their style and I think it's just a good chance to go up against one of the best nations in the world and see where we're at and challenge ourselves without the pressure of results necessarily. - And that group also included some more in Uganda as well. I mean, I enjoyed the game. So what was it like playing their nose? - Yeah, it was brilliant. So more was our opening game. So that was great to start off with a big one and a really solid performance. And then Uganda for me was my 100th cap. They were a little bit unknown. We hadn't played Uganda a lot. They were kind of quite fresh onto the scene, 2018, 2019. So for us, we had high expectations, probably didn't quite meet our expectations during that game but it was a brilliant game, brilliant game to play in. And I just enjoyed it from start to finish, as I said. Healy and yourself took the average age up and you can bring in Tom's info saying that, not that. But when you look at the fact that the likes of Beth and Sarah were in the early 20s. Nev was 19 and Emma was only 17. How did you feel did overall? - Yeah, I mean, we had our expectations within our camp and we probably didn't quite meet our kind of gold standard expectations. We wanted to beat Uganda, fail short on that and then it set up a kind of hard place and after that. But overall, we did put in performances. We were really proud of it. As you mentioned, we had a young team and that's been a little bit of a theme recently with the Scottish teams, like they have been quite young. It was Emma Barrie's first ever catch. Like she'd never played in the Scotland dress before and for how to play in such a big occasion. And she took to the court a lot during that competition was major. And I think we were just on the pinnacle of what could be. And I think it was the same at the decent competitions. I think there's so much potential. And once these girls hit 28th already, when they're actually at their peak up, we're really excited to see what they do. - And Emma attracted the eyes, obviously of Lisa Alexander and many fans as well that saw her in the arena. She's had a great five years since, hasn't she? - Yeah, I really back him. I think her journey's been up and down. She's had a few injuries along her way, which has been tough. But at the same time, like, I think once she reaches her full potential, she's gonna be unstoppable. She's got a good shot on her. She's obviously tall, rangey, but she can also move for someone so tall. So yeah, she's a great person to have a team, great personality and has a lot of potential that's still to be released fairly. - You stayed close to the arena and often, you'd see the fans in and around. Meal times at the hotel, that kind of thing. And barely nicking out, last croissant is from her book. But what was that like having the fans so close to you? - I loved it. I'm not sure our England players would have their experience very different because they were literally getting bombarded by the fans at the hotel and everywhere in the way. And so I think it was quite difficult for them to maybe go out and have that downtime and just go out for a coffee or meet their parents. But for us, a little bit unknown. It was great to just be in the hustle and bustle of it. Different teams brought different energies. The fans were brilliant. We had the fans on Litchle outsider hotel and just being able to have that access to your loved ones during the contest. And it just gives you that moment to just get a different perspective, be with those people who no matter how you play will always love you. And I also had my daughter as well. So, you know, it was a great opportunity to be being amongst that environment. - And you took over a complete floor, didn't you? - I'm trying to think back. We did have quite a big space, which is really good for us, like to actually have a team room and to be spread out. So it's definitely good to have a good facility next door because the small things add up, especially when it's such an intense competition over such a short period of time, the little things do matter. - And deck the players out with flags, that kind of thing. And finally, what did Gil set the world after the tournament? - Yeah, absolutely loved having Gil's a coach. I think for us, we knew like where we want to go. And I think she was really proud of the effort we put in, but at the same time, we were able to identify areas to work on moving forward and how we're going to close the gap even further and make sure like we're hitting the top 10 finishing positions in these major competitions. So it was a really positive experience, it was one that we knew we had to take the learnings from moving forward. - Claire, thank you so much for sharing your memories. - You're welcome. - The net will show is now also available via Sky HD, Sky Q and Sky Glass. Select sports and we're on the podcast trail. (whooshing)
CLaire Maxwell was Thistles Captain for Netball World Cup 2019 - A new interview with Claire looking back on the tournament