The Netball Show
S7 Ep64: Niamh Cooper (08th Sept 2024)
(upbeat music) - Hi, this is Nat Metcalf. Flyhawk have developed a unique 3D kit designer that's fully customizable. So if you're looking for a new kit for your team for the new season, visit flyhawk.com or email info@flyhawk.com with your ideas now. - Nation Player is the easy to use, one-stop radio and audio app. Download Nation Player now on the Apple App Store or Google Play. Nation Player, where on are you? - The netball show with Flyhawk. Raising the bar for netball and winning sport. - Netball show with Flyhawk delighted to speak to Neve Cooper and Neve. Do a part of the Warriors trip to Barbados. So you won the series. What was that like for you and the rest of the team? - Yeah, thanks so much for having me on again, Andy. Yeah, it was a brilliant experience. We've played against Barbados a few times in the last five, six years. The last time we played them was actually the World Cup in 2019. I think we played them in 2018 and they came over to us for a test series. And historically, I've always had very close matches against them. So it was really good to go out and expose some of our younger, more up and common players to the Caribbean style because it's the sort of thing that often you don't get to play against unless you go to a major competition. So it was just fantastic to sort of get everyone exposed and obviously the aim of the competition was to not only to have some exposure but to gain some ranking points as we head towards potential Commonwealth Games in 2026 and Barbados sit quite close to us. So we went out there with the aim of winning three from three and that's what we did. So overall, very successful two weeks in the Caribbean. - What's their standard like? Did they give you good opposition? - Yeah, no, they definitely did. It's a great exposure whenever you go over to play against these teams because the style is so different to the European or the UK style. They play a much more relaxed form of an apple. We actually were saying we're quite jealous with the form of an apple they play 'cause they nearly, it appears like they just play what they see and they give balls that often in the UK were coached not to give. So it's a really fun style to play against. They're a very, very good team, they always have been but they've gone through a very similar period of transition to us as the Warriors and that they've had lots of retirement since the World Cup in 2023. So they had a lot of younger players playing for them as well and I think they had maybe three or four under 20 ones in their squad. So probably not quite at the standard where we played them before but I suppose we could say the same thing for the Warriors. So really, really good opportunity to go out and test the water against them. And in the end, a couple of the matches, one of the matches was quite close and the other two matches, we were able to build a bit of a score line and have an opportunity to get some caps into the younger ones as well. - You do all right, mind, a couple of hours for the games and then the rest of the time on the beach. - Oh, flat out train in the whole time, flat out train in the whole time, aren't they? - Oh, yeah, on it. (laughs) - We saw the beach, we did see the beach once or twice. Supercovery, obviously, is very important. And we went down and did a bit of cold water therapy, I think is what they call it. - We saw Nippon Northern Ireland fundraise for this trip as well. There was that contribution for the government as well. So it's obviously great that these things are available without the cost to the athlete but are you still finding that you still have to fund a lot of it yourselves? - Yeah, to be honest with you, the transition that we've made over the last probably 10 years that I've played for Northern Ireland has been brilliant. I remember having to go and do bag packing and do all sorts of different types of fundraisers and nights at the races and whatever to raise to go to any kind of competition. And that very much has become less of a thing now, which is great because it is very contrasting. It's a big contrast in my life because obviously there's one part of it with Super League where you're entering this new professional era and they're trying to pay players more and get you to work less and for it to be much more professionalised sport. And then you go to international which you would expect to be the same. And actually it's still lagging behind for a bit, especially for the other home nations outside of the roses. The funding is great. And we got funding from Sport and I for that test series but it's not something that we always get and obviously the players aren't paid. In itself, obviously I think it's a great honour to always represent your country and to, you know, pull on a warrior's dress any time is always a massive honour for me. But everyone takes annual eve to go on these test series and to represent and to try and, you know, push Northern Ireland forward in two more professional era. And so at times it is difficult because you don't get paid and you are tick and you're at no leave to go and do these things. But in the grand scheme, I can see in my time how much it has improved and we just hope that it will continue. The fundraising that we did was a bit different to the fundraising that we've done before and it's very much asking, we're looking for sponsorship really. We want people to come and back the warriors and, you know, put trust into the players and into the organisation to succeed and want to put financial backing into female sport and ultimately that's what we're looking for. You know, we want to come away from the days where we're, you know, big and borrowing our family and friends to go on these test series. So things are improving and I think we're very, very grateful to all the sponsors that helped us get out to the test series because the experience was invaluable, not just on the court and rankings but in terms of, as I said, the exposure of all the younger ones to a completely different style of Caribbean, you know, Caribbean style of netball but also Caribbean style of empowering which is very different as well. And then the team bonding that you get alongside it, I think, you know, you can't do that just by going to lots of training camps in Northern. And so hopefully we'll be able to do some similar things again over the next couple of years. - And just being able to enjoy these games with teammates, really special? - Yeah, really special. And we've been, you know, we've haven't had probably an opportunity to come together as warriors like that much in the last, you know, two, three years. And so this year there's been a real focus on us just getting back together and not rebranding ourselves completely because we don't want to change who we are but having a look at what our values are, trying to build again from the bottom and really set a good foundation in place for the future. And I think that has really, I suppose, capped off a really successful year for us. And we had a test series against Republic of Ireland in December and, you know, we won that. The girls went to the Europeans over in the Isle of Man in Maytime and, you know, won that. And so in terms of the year, you know, it's been a very successful year for the Warriors and there's so much developing talent coming through that it's actually so exciting. And it makes me a lot less stressed about the future of Nipple in Northern Ireland and feel like we're going to hopefully have a few more players in the Super League in the common five, six years because there's some that I think just couldn't be missed. - The Nipple Show is now also available via Sky HD, SkyQ, and Skyglass. So let's sport and we're on the podcast's rail. (whooshing)
The Netball NI Warriors recently spent time in Barbados and the won the series