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U21s ready to give ‘best shot’ at Netball World Cup
September 25, 2025
After losing (64-33) to England in their decisive Pool C game on Tuesday in the Netball World Youth Cup in Gibraltar, Jamaica under-21 Sunshine Girls face another mammoth task when they face Australia in today's quarter-finals.
The Australians dominated Pool B, with overwhelming victories over Northern Ireland, Singapore, Samoa and Scotland.
Jamaica's head coach Annette Daley said the defeat against England was a big disappointment. Nevertheless, she said their aspirations for a podium finish remains in tact.
"I would say the confidence has taken a hit (from England loss), because you would have prepared to get a better result. But we know that you have to put away the match that is gone and look forward to the ones that are coming, and going into tomorrow, it's a different ball game. We have to be positive and we have to go in for the win," she said.
"It's a huge task, but no bigger task than when we came into the competition. We came into the competition with the goal to be on the podium. In order to get on the podium, it means that all these teams, we will have to beat. So it is no bigger task to say, we are playing Australia now. We have said if we are going to win this championship, it means we have to beat an Australian, New Zealand, and England," Daley reasoned.
"So yes, we are meeting them now in the quarter-finals, but if you are going to be the champions you have to beat the best," she told STAR Sports.
"We are representing the country. It's not all the time you will get the result that you want, but we will be laying it all out there and see the result at the end. And that's all we can ask, to go out and give it our best shot."
Daley says in order to win today they have to start better than they did against England, who led 18-9 after the first quarter and 36-17 at half-time. The third quarter was Jamaica's best period of the game, as both teams scored 10 goals each, to keep England ahead 46-27 at the end of the third. However, the English re-established dominance in the fourth quarter, winning the period 18-6, to win by 31 points.
Daley said basic errors and poor decision making contributed to their downfall, and said they must improve in these aspects if they want to have a chance at victory.
"The errors that were made were basic errors. And if it is, moving forward into the other matches, if it is that we correct those errors, then we could do good things," she noted.
"When we looked at the opportunities that we created, we had ball in hand but our decision making let us down, along with some basic errors.
"So we are looking at it to say, once we put ourselves in a position to compete, how do we ensure that we execute. So that's what we are taking into the next match, to show we can capitalise on the opportunities that we create," she said.
