The Netball Show
S7 Ep69: Karen Greig (19th 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 sports. - Netball show with Flyhawk. Also on a Nation radio app these days as well. Count Greg Manchester Thunder, thank you for your time. My first question to you is how much fun was the Super League head coaches WhatsApp group on Wednesday night after everything had been announced? And don't you tell me that there isn't one? - There is a WhatsApp group, but there was apps that I can totally honestly, there was nothing going on in there on Wednesday night. It's been pretty quiet. We tend to just use it when we've got questions around different things. So Vic and I had a good chat around stuff. We go over them that. Yeah, it's been pretty quiet. - And it was nice that all the squads were announced on the same day as well. Really building up to the tension for next season. - Yeah, definitely. I know England Netball wanted to know in the Super League, wanted to look at how we could kind of not draw it out as much as it has done previously. And in our respect, it's great that the trying new things and seeing what kind of reaction we get from the fans and how that's taken on. And it was great to have the support of Guy Sports News on it and reporting on every team. So it was definitely great to get that visibility and get it done in one day and to try something new. And everyone now has got all the information that I know they've been craving for weeks. - And the squads have obviously been announced fixtures early October as well. This is where for you and the rest of the squad as well. Things really begin to pick up pace. - Yeah, definitely. I think, you know, it was, you know, the season ended and then, you know, the window opened on the Monday after the final. So it was a bit chaos kind of going into that Monday but I prepared as well as we could be in terms of having contracts ready to send out as soon as we were able to. So, you know, that first week was definitely all around just getting your players nailed in. And once you know who you've got, you can really start embedding what your calendar looks like. It's difficult to set a calendar until you know what team you're working with, where your players are gonna be at what times of the year. So, you know, it's been pretty full on trying to get everything nailed down, you know, since squads were signed. And yeah, it's gonna mean that Burgess were talking the other day. It's gonna be literally probably, it feels like it's ages away and it'll be a little soon from upon us. - And you've been able to elevate Emma and Ellie as well. - You know, for Rose, when you're looking at the squad and the makeup of the squad, especially now with that, you know, we're working with a 10, our pathway is critical. And I think it's really important that, you know, our pathway players look at our senior squad and know that they've definitely got a chance to play for Manchester Thunder one day. We are investing in our pathway and we want to progress those players through to play for Manchester Thunder, you know, our culture, our ethos, the way we want to play the game. It's really important. So when you have players like Emma and Ellie, who have been in and around the squad for a couple of years now, Ellie are obviously suffered back-to-back serious injuries but had a great comeback year this year when she had to step in to cover for Kerry when she was injured, you know, she was so fearless in what she was putting out on court. And, you know, she was a bit of a nuisance to shoot us. So to be able to reward Ellie after a couple of really difficult years for her, she can give us all three positions. People only really saw her at goalkeeper this season, but that was just, you know, well, we embedded her back into the group and that, you know, the intensity of what we're trying to achieve. But before she had her ACL and her Achilles injuries, we were playing her at Gold Defense and Wing Defense as well and she's doing a great job there. So that flexibility that Ellie can give us in that back three is exciting and really excited to see her lining up with Nicola and Josie. And also, obviously with Emma, Emma's been in our squad previously, she was a training partner last year. When she got the opportunities to play, she absolutely grabbed them with two hands. And again, it's all about succession planning. You know, there's not very many attacking wing attack centers out there. So for us to be really lucky to have a player of Emma's caliber who's sat in the England futures, you know, it's important that we continue to develop her and give her opportunities in the Super League environment. - How tricky was selecting that final turn? - It was tough, don't we? Like it made no bones about that, you know, it was really hard. - In which case, well done. - You know, as soon as we knew that, you know, squads, we were going to eight teams, we were going to squads at 10, we're no training partners. I sat down and pulled together a recruitment document. I ranked every player across the league in every position and kind of highlighted players up for Rose where we thought we could make improvements. And obviously until you get through that final and know what that looks like, you then have to start making some really crucial decisions. And for Rose, it was about, you know, we've not quite got over the line in the last couple of years. Obviously, we finished top of the table at the end of the regular season last year. But, you know, really, we want to win that final in the year before we were beating at semi-finals. So, for us, it was all about looking at where we can make those slight improvements to go that one step further as, you know, I didn't want to be in a position where I'm naming the same squad and getting the same results because that's then on my head. So it's what kind of players do we need to make those slight adjustments where we think we can make those gains. And it was at defense and that was critical for us just to kind of look at where we can make those gains, where we can win more ball, we can add a little bit more height in there. Because I think our shooting unit last year was phenomenal. It was raw, it was untapped. And I think there's still a lot of growth in that unit. And, yeah, obviously losing MO was always going to be a difficult one, you know, she's got big shoes to fill. But it's exciting that we're able to give Emma the opportunity with that experience of, you know, Nat and Amy in there as Rose's players and Taylor obviously is a future as well. I think we've found a really good balance. And I think the key thing, you know, I've seen a lot on Twitter around, probably should really read it, but, you know, we all do every now and again, around squad selections and what players may have missed out and why and all that kind of stuff. And as coaches, it's difficult. And when you are playing off a 10, there's only so many players you can carry. You can only give you one position. And I think that's crucial in when you're trying to put all these digs or pieces together. I think I've got a squad of probably nine, of definitely nine players who can definitely give me at least two positions. Josie will argue and we can argue because we've played Josie in there before as well. Josie can give us gold defense if we really needed to, but we know she's a solid, pretty much out and out goalkeeper, but we can throw in that flexibility. So I think when you're playing off a squad of 10, you can't carry a lot of players that are only specialists in one position. So when you're looking at what the make of your squad is, you know, combinations, connections, these things become really important. The net will show is now also available via Sky HD, Sky Q, and Sky Glass. So let's sport and we're on the podcast trail. (whooshing)
Congratulations to Karen & Barry this week. We spoke to her a few weeks ago to reflect back on 2024 and look to 2025