LISTEN: New head coach role a 'huge' step forward for Guernsey Netball

Netball development officer Amy Fallaize believes that the recruitment of the island’s first paid head coach will be ‘huge’ for the sport locally.

Guernsey's senior players have not competed as Panthers or in an inter-insular since before the pandemic.

The Guernsey Netball Association have begun advertising for a new head coach role and have extended their search off-island, looking ideally to capture an applicant who has – or is working towards – a Level Three qualification.

Having a head coach in place could provide a significant shot in the arm for Guernsey’s top senior players, who have been deprived of major competitive opportunities since the breakdown of the representative Panthers side over the Covid pandemic. Re-establishing such representative opportunities will be one major focus of the role.

Listen to a full interview with Amy Fallaize on this week's Guernsey Press Sport Podcast

Fallaize shared her excitement on the latest Guernsey Press Sport Podcast about the new post, which the association are pushing to fill by the end of winter.

‘I’m so, so excited that we can finally start to chat to people about this,’ she said.

‘It’s been something that’s been in the background – we’ve been working on it for a while now – and it’s just something that we really think is going to help push forward Guernsey netball, especially now for more of our senior players.

‘Around the time of Covid, things sort of disintegrated a little bit ... since then, it’s not really picked back up.

‘It’s just trying to provide something now where we can get our senior players some opportunities to develop, to get some matchplay hopefully, and just to get a little bit excited about netball again, and we haven’t had that for a while now.’

Netball development officer Amy Fallaize speaking on this week's Guernsey Press Sport Podcast. (Picture by Tony Curr)

But following a review of senior representative netball by Jeremy Frith, the development officer admits that reviving Panthers may not be the only way forward.

Would focusing on occasional high-quality tournaments be more appropriate than competing in a league almost week in, week out?

‘It’s exciting to think that we maybe don’t need to go straight back into what we were doing before,’ she said.

‘There might be other options. There might be other things that we can do better that might engage people a little bit more and might be more realistic, maybe.’

The new recruit will also help support, develop and mentor coaches throughout the age groups in the island.