Donna Spalding will take on the A Grade coaching role at the Ararat Rats following Jess Williamson and Lauren Armstrong’s coaching stint in 2017.
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Spalding is a club veteran and will have a lot of knowledge to share with the team and is coming off a successful season coaching the 15 and under team last year.
“For me, I had been involved as a coach since I was in my 20s, you don’t like seeing someone who has had such great success down the bottom,” she said.
Spalding was approached in January about the role and spent a month thinking about it before accepting the position.
The incoming coach said she will take a similar approach to the senior team, as she does to coaching junior teams.
“The junior team I had last year was pretty good and really skillful, the only difference is the juniors are more committed due to less outside influences and can spend more time training,” she said.
While Spalding does not have a firm number of games she has in mind to win, she said finals were definitely on the radar for the team in 2018.
“To make finals, you pretty much have to be winning at least half your games at least, It’s not good enough to just lose by a few goals, you have to get over the top and get the win in close games,” she said.
“So I want them to have faith in themselves to get over the line against the teams they lost narrowly to last season which will make a big difference.”
The 2017 squad will go into the 2018 season mostly unchanged with defender Krystal Fisher the only player yet to re-commit.
Spalding said it was great to keep the squad together and has not really looked to bring any new players in.
“If I hear about someone who is not taking the court elsewhere, then I would have some discussions but our success over the years has been because of our junior development, so we will continue doing that.”
Rats 2018 netball Coaches:
A Grade: Donna Spalding, B Grade: Olivia West, C Grade: Kate Bligh, Breanne Fratin, 17 and under: TBC, 15 and under A: Donna Spalding, 15 and under B: Monique Scott, 13 and under: Celine Bush.
