Becca Forrest made a shining start to the England Netball Southwest Regional 1 season with Team Jets last weekend with two MVP performances in as many days.
Jets landed back in Jersey with mixed emotions, having lost one and won one of the two games over the Saturday and Sunday. However, the whole club will no doubt be buzzing to be back on the court play competitive games again after such a long time away.
Dan Andrade caught up with Forrest, who plays Goal Defence, and spoke about all things Jets, from being back with her team mates to how pleased she is with her personal performances over the weekend. Read the full interview below!
First of all, how good has it been to be back training with the Jets!
It has been so amazing to be back together with the girls, we have all missed it so much and there is definitely a different energy around this season. We’re all feeling so grateful to be able to play the game we love and compete again. We’re itching to get back into the Premier League so we’ve been really keen to start our campaign for that.
How much did you miss being on the court over the break!
So much. I’ve really missed the energy we all bring collectively and how we bounce off each other not just on the court but off the court too. I’ve missed the routine of training and matches so really happy to have that back! It’s been tough not just having the lack of netball but also not seeing the girls and coaches as much. We’re such a tightly knit group so we’re so happy to be back together again.
First game you narrowly lost – how hard was that to take? How was that game?
It was definitely a lesson for us. After the game Linda spoke to us and reminded us of the usual trajectory of a netball season being up and down rather than a straight and easy path. It was disappointing not being able to take the win at the end but more than anything it was a learning experience for us. We’ve learnt so much from the narrow loss and also given lots of the youngsters some great experience and court time. We’re looking at how we finish off our games now, so that when we get to crunch time we can take the close games and be on the right side of the scoreboard.
Second game you bounced back! How pleased are you that you have your first win under your belt!
Winning with the girls is always an amazing feeling because I know how hard we work for it. We were definitely rocked by the first game but Linda really reminded us of the bigger picture and that it was a completely new game and task. We addressed any quick fixes from Saturday and we were able to go out there and show that we really are top of the table quality. I felt so proud of the girls and it showed how resilient we are when we need to be.
How hard are the double game days? How do you recover between the two?
It is tough, we have prepared so much during pre-season for a long and testing season, as we knew we had double header games. We’re very lucky that we have an exciting bench that can easily fill in any gaps we need when we need to change things and take off the load on certain players during the games. This weekend our recovery was mainly based around sleep and debriefing from the previous match so that we were in the right headspace for the second game. We don’t usually have lots of time between the games so we do as much as we can!
You were MVP in both games! How happy with your personal performances!
It was so much fun. I honestly enjoyed the games so much. It’s a completely new end of the court for me so I’m trying to find a balance between just enjoying it and tactically working it all out. Molly Carre, who played GD with me, is an established defender so has been great to play with, and I’ve also been lucky to have Josie Le Masurier around who is so wise and knowledgeable about all things defence. It’s a really exciting move for me and I’m definitely in the right hands!
Finally, what are your goals both personally and for the team for the rest of the season!
Consistently being a starting defender in the team is definitely a personal goal of mine, so far it’s going well! I’d say I’m one of the more experienced players now, so I’m definitely trying to help the young players as much as possible too. As a team our main goal is to get back into the Premier League. We’ve shown that we can compete and win at that level so we just need to get the results now! We have a really exciting team this season, so I’m looking forward to seeing what we can achieve.
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