When the Jaguars netball team that will defend their title in the Brutal Fruit-series gets announced, this Thursday Ine-Marí Venter’s name will with good reason be one of the first called out.
The lanky goal shooter got at long last her chance to play for the Proteas during the recent Commonwealth Games and did not disappoint. The Tuks player was one of the stars, ending the tournament with an average goal percentage of 88.3%. More importantly, she has returned as a more confident player knowing she is good enough to hold her own against the world’s best.
However, Venter is a realist. Norma Plummer (Proteas head coach) is a hard but fair taskmaster so there are no guarantees ever that she or any other player will automatically be selected to play for South Africa. It is a case of never resting on one’s laurels ever when being part of the Proteas squad. The players won’t have it any other way.
“Getting to play during the Commonwealth Game was a good experience. It was also sort of a reality check. I know there are certain aspects of my game that I actively need to work on. I am going to try and experiment a bit with a few things during the Brutal Fruit series to see how I can improve my game.”
One of the things Venter wants to work on is to be more confident playing as goal attack also. During the Games, she had to, and she admits feeling that she was not at her best.
Venter had been part of the Protea-team for the whole of last year but did not get to play one game. Then she had to make her international debut against Jamaica during the Games in what was a must-win game. Was it not a case of throwing her to the proverbial “wolves”?
“I will be honest I was quite nervous when I went on to the court to play. I did not want to let the team down, but when my first attempt at goal was successful, I started to relax. Goal shooting is all about confidence,” said the Tuks player.
According to Venter, the head coach has a plan with everything she does. One of the things Plummer always keeps emphasising is that she never wants to set up any of player to fail ever.
“Norma did speak to me after last year’s Fiji-series and told me I did not get to play because she felt at the time I was not consistent enough as a goal shooter. It was the right decision as I know now I was not ready.”
On Tuesday Venter will be playing for Tuks during an Intervarsity Tournament at the University of Pretoria. The teams of the University of Johannesburg, Northwest Pukke, Wits and the Vaal University of Technology are also playing. The tournament starts at 08:30.
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