By Nick Creely
ROC A Grade netball coach Simon O’Shanassy is under no illusions that the Kangaroos need to be on their toes when on-court action does eventually restart in the AFL Outer East.
The Kangaroos are in the midst of an absolutely golden 2021 campaign in Division 1, sitting with a freakish 35-0 record across A Grade, B Grade, C Grade and D Grade in what has been a season of immense quality and an indicator of just what’s being built at Starling Road under the super coach.
While O’Shannassy admits the club is sitting in a pretty “envious” position, he knows just how many curveballs Covid can throw up.
“I think the greatest thing about the club is that there’s no real expectation – obviously with winning comes a certain amount of expectation, but the old saying is ‘keeping a lid on it’, and I think the thing with Covid is it’s keeping us a little bit on our toes,” he said.
“Will we? Won’t we? I suppose it goes into our mantra of taking it one week at a time, and that’s what we’re doing, we have no idea what’s going to happen this week or the week after.
“That’s all we can really do.”
The dominance and consistency amongst the Kangaroo senior ranks has been noticeable this season, and O’Shanassy believes it’s come from setting some pretty high standards amongst the playing group.
“Particularly with the A Grade girls, we had a chat before the season, opening up about our expectations for the season as individuals, and what our expectations were as a team,” he said.
“We’ve stuck to those core values and what we set out to do – ROC has always been that whereabouts team, close but not close enough, and we’re now starting to see the value of the juniors coming through.
“If you look at the average age of the girls, it’s about 21, 22 with the exception of some long-term players – ROC has always been synonymous with having success in their juniors, and those players are now marking their mark on the senior grades.”
With the unknown of Covid putting a genuine question mark over the current netball season, O’Shanassy said that his group isn’t looking too far ahead and focusing on wellbeing and being connected.
“The ironic thing is that we take the sport kind of out of it,” he said.
“Not playing is not in our control, and what’s in our control is staying in connect, reaching out and giving avenues of opportunities to reach out – the engagement is a big focus for us.
“It’s not like we’ve switched a flick and focused on that, it’s been a focus since the start of the season – we believe our trust and respect for eachother will be a real asset for us coming into finals.”
With uncertainty surrounding the restart date, restrictions surrounding community sport, O’Shanassy said that as soon as its possible, he would like to see the season recommence.
“The sooner we can get one per cent closer to some sort of normality, the better,” he said.
“It’s not even about the wins, or the outcomes, it’s about respecting that each member, club and athlete is yearning to get on court, and if we take that small step it’ll do wonders for a lot of people.”
