Mdodana lauds quality of netball at SA champs as playoffs fight intensifies

Though netball is yet to turn professional in South Africa, former Spar Proteas captain Zanele Mdodana has marvelled at the sport’s growth in the country over recent years and remains hopeful about its future.

Mdodana, the coach of Maties, is doing commentary for SuperSport TV in the Spar Netball National Championships taking place at Hoërskool Rustenburg until Saturday.

This year’s national champs have drawn about 1,800 netball players, many of whom are looking to build a career in the sport or catch the eye of national team selectors.

“With so many participants, I think this is arguably one of the biggest tournaments of the Spar National Champs we have ever had in terms of the numbers in participation,” Mdodana said. “It’s really speaking to the growth of the sport in the country and the quality of the play, especially in the A Section for the seniors and the Under-21s, has been really good.

“This is the flagship of netball in the country. Every player needs to go past here to get into the national team.

“There has been huge growth and the quality keeps getting better.”

The former skipper credits some of the improvements to South Africa hosting a successful Netball World Cup in Cape Town in July and August, making the sport a hot topic in the build-up, during and in the aftermath of the showpiece.

Mdodana, who represented South Africa at the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games, said the sport is doing far better now compared with her time as a player. She said media coverage has improved, which allows players to be easily recognisable and increases the chances of more sponsors coming on board.

“It’s chalk and cheese,” Mdodana said. “There has been so much progress, now the players are getting exposed on TV. In my time I think they used to only broadcast, if at all, the finals. But now it’s the whole week; SuperSport is here, putting out most of the games on TV.

“Exposure has been great, Spar are a loyal sponsor of the tournament.”

Thursday is set to be a crucial day for the front-running teams to put up a fight for a spot in the semifinals.

Defending champions Johannesburg are almost guaranteed a place in the knockouts with nine points from their five outings.

After Wednesday they occupied top spot on the log having won both matches, beating third-placed Dr Kenneth Kaunda 52-39 and fourth-placed Cape Winelands 61-46.

Mangaung are second with the same number of points as Johannesburg but they have played six matches. Dr Kenneth Kaunda are third with eight points while Winelands are in fourth with five points.

Tshwane, who started the tournament as one of the hot favourites, are surprisingly fifth with five points in as many games.

DAY 3: Results

Senior A

Tshwane 64-45 Cape Town

Buffalo 30-75 Cape Winelands

Mangaung 58-43 Nelson Mandela Bay

Johannesburg 52-39 Dr Kenneth Kaunda

Nelson Mandela Bay 47-46 Cape Town

Mangaung 54-53 Tshwane

Cape Winelands 46-61 Johannesburg

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