Players and fans can expect exciting competition in the last day of the Grasshoppers/Intersport Global International Netball Festival which ends today at the National Netball Centre.

Grasshoppers  Netball co-founder/coach Alumeci Sachs said with competitions being so tough, it would be hard to tell who will come out victorious.

“We have good competition from the local and Australian teams,” Sachs said.

“The Lomaiviti Suva Under-16 team dominate the grade, so we will be expecting to see them in the playoffs. But it will be interesting to see if they can make it all the way.

“Teams also need to watch out for Lomaiviti Lautoka because they played well.

“The players are eager to get in the Fiji Pearls squad.

“Melbourne Fijiana is another team to look out for in the Open grade, they had a pretty good run on the first day.

“The Australian teams paid a lot of money to come over and for that we want to host a good tournament for them so that they want to come back for more.

“It will be a tough day of competitions and I know a lot of teams will target for that quarterfinal spot. The Berowra Netball Club and Brisbane Phoenix teams are not to be underestimated as well.”

Sachs said they were building the way forward for young netballers who aim to make it into the national teams or play for other clubs outside of Fiji.

“We are setting the platform for age category development and already we can see a lot of improvement in our girls,” she said.

“Everyone knows that development should start from our young athletes but actually doing something about it is a different story.

“One day we might see some of these girls playing for the Fiji Pearls or even better, for another club overseas. The important thing is to get the ball rolling and that is what we have done and aim to keep doing.”

The last round of pool games will start at 8.30am, followed by the quarterfinals, with the medal presentation held at 4pm today.

Edited by Osea Bola

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