Well, this will be the last of the netball videos (although I still have some footage of the kids in action around the World Youth Netball Championships.
This is a composite of the last four matches. They took place on finals day and saw the allocation of the top eight places for junior netballers in the world. Our girls were fighting for fifth /sixth sport with Malawi. An online newspaper report from Malawi said they couldn't see the Cooks beating Malawi and they were right. The final score was Malawi 61 CI 48. This takes nothing away from the Cook Islanders who had some really good games and a few that weren't so good. But the Malawi team were just superb. They were deserved winners and they celebrated with such gusto at the end of the game that everyone amongst the spectators were cheering along with them as they danced and sang around the court. The biggest cheer probably occurred when the Cookies came out to join in their celebrations.
In the closest match South Africa 43 beat Northern Ireland 41 for the seventh and eighth spots.
The bronze medal game between Jamaica and England was a pretty brutal affair - well let's be fair about this - it wasn't an all out rough game but there were a few nudges and tumbles including one that resembled the notorious spear tackle in rugby league (sorry, I didn't catch that one on video). Jamaica were ahead for just about the whole game and eventually won 48-42.
The grand final was a bit of a disappointment. The Aussies looked unbeatable throughout the tournament and in this game the kiwis just didn't fire. The final score was 64-46 and the under 21 Australian side were deserved winners.
It was a fantastic occasion, everyone loved having all the overseas netballers here and now we are looking forward to the Pacific Mini Games starting on 21 September.
In the meantime, if you're interested in sport or how the Cooks will handle all the hoohah surrounding the games, check out the games website at www.2009pacificgames.co.ck.
