The Netball Show
S7 Ep49: Karen & Sheona (29th July 2024)
The netball show with Flyhawk, raising the bar for netball and winning sports. It's a netball show with Flyhawk, delighted as always to speak to Karen Rolo, the Executive Manager of Netball Northern Ireland. We've recently seen the posts online about Netball Northern Ireland looking for new partners really and it's just about being part of the journey, that future warrior journey and investing in the next generation. Yes, absolutely. I think as most sportsmen in particular netball, we do need to forge those partnerships and we do need to build relationships with people who are willing to invest in our sport and, as you say, the future of our sport. We're very fortunate that we do have some funding from sport Northern Ireland, but it doesn't cover anywhere near what we actually do as a business, either across performance or participation. But like anyone that goes to any performance netball event will know that these things don't just happen and they do cost significant amounts of money for the events themselves, let alone all the training costs for the athletes in the build up to any events. You would have still been able to maintain some of the existing partners that you have thought. Yes, we have been really fortunate. Our partners are great and we have some very loyal partners who've been around for a long time and we've actually just brought some new ones on board quite recently. But as well as that, it's always just looking for that longer term investment. I think we're very clear that we don't just want someone to come in to get their name on a dress for six months and then disappear off. We actually want to build a relationship and something quite sustainable with a company who has similar values to ours and who can actually see the benefit in the future of women and girls being involved in sport long term across every level from just general participation right through to the performance pathway and through our workforce as well. It's not necessarily just the athletes that need support. It's our coaches and our officials as well. When you look at some of these successes over the last couple of years as well, it's about building on that, isn't it, building on world rankings and the teams in a strong position at the moment? We are absolutely. Obviously we've had highs before where we have been in that top eight in the world and it definitely is an ambition to get back there but we're under no illusion as to how challenging that will be. Given where we sit geographically, it is not easy to play appropriate teams in ranking matches. Certainly the ones that we need to be targeted are on the other side of the world right now and it's expensive to get there or it's expensive for them to come to us. So I think we definitely have a good history to build on and we had opportunities at the last three Commonwealth Games. We've been involved in two recent World Cups and obviously our absolute ambition is to make sure we're at the next Commonwealth Games, whatever that may look like and also the next World Cup which gives us the opportunity then to play that varied competition. However, we don't just want to be exposed to it in those settings. We want to make sure that we're giving our athletes and our coaches the opportunity to be playing those matches ahead of those major competitions and that is putting on standalone test series events which are costly and are challenging to arrange. As you say, we've been there before, we're in a good place right now so we're certainly in a rebuild phase. The Europe Nepal challenge open event in May was really useful for us. We had such a young grip out there for them to be so resilient and come away with solid wins throughout the week and in a very tense final knowing they can get over the line with so few experienced players on the court. It was very much a young team and they did wonders so it was absolutely incredible to be there. So we absolutely want to build on what they delivered and I think that shows that we are in a really, really good place looking forward with shown a lead in the way. People like Nev, Caroline, the McGee is obviously really contributed to Super League in the past to name a few. It's about investing in the future really isn't it and those players that will need support in their journey? Yeah 100% and I think that the names that you've mentioned are still very much a part of our Warrior grip and they are very much this. They're very much the senior figures in that grip and they feel very passionately that they want the next age grip coming through to have the opportunities that they've had but perhaps without the struggle of the fundraising and having to focus on the money side of things as well as getting themselves caught ready. I think we have had a number of years where we expect all our squads to contribute to the costs of running their squad and to attend competition and those costs can be tens of thousands of points because you're taking 12, 15 players and a management team of five, six people so you're talking 18, 20 people going away to an event and we all know everyone's summer holidays haven't come down in price so you can imagine trying to take a squad of that size away to compete and then you want to have them there the appropriate number of days in advance to be ready to compete and to have the rest days available as and when they can too. So absolutely we've got the experienced heads there who are still in the Warrior grip and who know what it takes to deliver on that World Court and they're fully committed to supporting the next grip coming through as well. There's a section online, Nepal and I.org where we can find out all this information and options include individual players, coaches and maybe just a one-off donation. Yes all of those and I think that's the thing it's not that we're saying we need someone to invest thousands and thousands of points if there is anyone out there who has a small donation that they want to make it all helps or if there's someone out there who thinks that they might be interested in supporting an individual player or an individual coach or a camp or a coaching weekend. There's lots of opportunities out there for people to get involved and we'll certainly make sure that we have a package that suits whatever anyone needs if they're able to support us. I know this as well was maybe a suggestion that you could be looking for a headline sponsor as well. You'd be open to suggestions about that as well. Absolutely the ultimate aim is to have a tightly partner and a long-term partner so over two, three maybe four years that's the long-term aim and then as well as that we would also like to have multiple partners that sit underneath that. So to say we have opportunities in terms of you could be a travelling warrior partner, you could be a camp partner, you could be a test series partner or you could just be a player partner. Any of those things we are certainly open to conversations with anyone who feels that they might be in a position to be able to support us. A really nice to see in the international series on the way Paradise series against Barbados taking place in August it's exactly what you need games like these against stronger position. Absolutely and we always know that playing the Caribbean nations is really tough. We have hosted Barbados here before, we've laid them in the major events before, it's always a really tight contest and we're absolutely delighted that they have invited us along to the Paradise series and we are taking a squad of 13 players across and a slightly reduced management team sadly but I'm sure it will be. I'm not, no, unfortunately not. The purse strings don't extend that far but I know the girls will go out there and they will do a great job and say we're really really excited that Barbados have welcomed us and I think we're just in the final stages of confirming some bits and pieces around their announcement of the series and fingers crossed it will be live streamed, they're working really hard to make sure that that happens but it'll be a great great experience for our players both the experienced ones and the ones that are relatively new to the Warriors and it's not often you get to go on a trip like this and play three major ranking matches that are really important to us both this year and in the longer term. We'll hear from Sean around her appointment shortly but in the meantime current maybe if somebody is listening to this and want a partner or best way to really get involved with the Warriors show the show. The best thing to do is definitely just give me a shout, absolutely just contact me, my DMs are hoping across the social media platforms or you can just reach me through the netball and I website our contact details are there as well and I said we will have something for everyone, you don't have to come in with hundreds of thousands of pounds, we would love that but we also recognise the amount of work that we'd need to go in to make something would happen and we're just really keen to chat with anyone who sees the value in what we're doing and will help us push the sport forward. Aaron, thanks in the meantime for your time. Thanks so much Andy. Hi everyone, welcome to the show and welcome to the show and welcome to the hashtag #flyhook.com you can find the full range of their netball products including hoodies, leggings, netballs and so much more. There are even kit packages that suit everyone. They are available in UK sizes 4 to 24 and also in different lengths too. Plus we can even send you a sample pack for a flight called Warriors head coach Sean Forbes. Last couple of years you've spent developing future roses so how have you found that? Yeah look I'm definitely a coach and a person who just loves to develop people, we're all human beings at the end of the day so I've absolutely loved that space and just knowing how many of those girls you know being picked for an under 21 European competition is just such a pleasure to be part of their development. I'm very much a coach who likes to develop the player off the court and that's just something that I take pride on that hopefully I can bring to the Warriors as well. Not out something that you'll be keen to bring to the Warriors themselves is just building their growth and strengthening the pathway as well. Yeah it's funny you should say that I guess the tagline that I have with the girls at the moment is the Warriors are built with plenty of heart and they play with lots of grit and that's I guess a sentence that I have come up with with them just from when I've watched them over the years that's how I feel like they play as a team and I guess looking at the system itself I'm trying to bring in all the experiences that I have into there even just changing little things like selection process and things like that and developing a Warriors way of playing so that you know as they come through the system they're all playing similar and the coaches in the pathways know what we're looking for and what we need to really drive the Warriors through so yeah I love that kind of stuff as a coach and a person so yeah I'm trying to embed it as quickly as I can in the Warriors. I would be familiar with people like me of Caroline and Feat but there's a real special list of names isn't it? I guess a beauty of the Warriors in a way is that they are spread over everywhere in the home nation countries and they're building their experiences with different styles of coaches in different areas and not just playing in Northern Ireland so I guess that's kind of a positive that we have as a group and something that we're actually quite proud of. Let's get the thoughts now of Karen Rolo the executive manager of Nipple Northern Ireland on your appointment. We have taken our time to appoint our new head coach as a department will be instrumental in the next phase of our work in performance. On connecting with Shona it has been taken from the start her passion for developing athletes and supporting their drive for success is second to none her experience and knowledge speak for itself. Add to that her integrity personal values and dedication to her sport she's the ideal fit for the Warriors and the wider Nipple and I staff team and I'm really looking forward to work with her and take the program forward. Great to hear from Karen Shona and also the positivity really of the whole Nipple and Ireland board and maybe Helen as well. Yeah I just when I've met those people we're just so similar and we've got such like similar values and our passion for Nipple is the same so it was kind of like a jigsaw piece I think and we all kind of fit together and just want to keep driving along the stronger together motto that Northern Ireland Nipple have and I definitely want to try and implement an input into their vision so it's great to meet them such lovely people and enthusiastic people about Nipple. Share a little on your coaching approach and I mean just that culture that you want to bring to the Warriors. Yeah so I guess the environment or the context around the Warriors is that we'll have one camp a month so we're doing a lot of work with the Sport and Institute of Northern Ireland around our values and our culture and the identity of being a warrior so at the moment it's about that legacy and that vision and the accountability of us as a senior kind of set up and what that means for us for the pathway and the legacy that we leave for the athletes coming through so very big on that part and I guess the second part that I've brought in is around athlete management and a lot of these girls sometimes don't have confidence in themselves or that self-belief that they're a really good net baller and person on the court so we've come up with a development plan if you like for each individual that they'll follow and set their own goals and targets so it's a new way of kind of thinking about it in an approach and something that we have to make sure we get right when we only see each other what is it going to be like 10 days in person and we've got quite big ambitions on the international stage over the next 12 months as well so yeah definitely got to get that piece right first with great people around me definitely about supporting their ambitions and on well working together for that success and tournament really yeah and we're working really really hard behind the scenes and I know you'll support this just around getting the Warriors back on that international stage so behind the scenes working with the other nations on some test series and what that looks like in the next 12 months and we've got some things in the pipeline which I can't tell you today you're definitely support Warriors in the next 12 months so yeah really excited if that comes off and at least that we don't have to travel halfway around the world just to play a Scotland or England or Wales no but there's still great competition for us but yeah it's um identifying those nations that we can play definitely the African nations you know like for us at the Botswana and Zimbabwe in particular you know great at netball great powerhouse and also just keeping an eye on those Caribbean countries and you know it's hard in the world rankings isn't it the rankings are just so hard to navigate round so yeah keeping an eye on all of it heading towards the World Cup in the future netball and I.org keep up to date with the Warriors online sure in the meantime thanks we can thank you so much thanks Andy the netball show is now also available via Sky HD Sky Q and Sky Glass to let's get and we're on the podcast rail
Karen Rollo and Sheona Forbes on the upcoming Warriors games in Barbados