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Lee unveiled as skipper as S’pore eyes Asian crown

SINGAPORE — The future of Singapore’s netball team looked uncertain last month, after the experienced trio of captain Micky Lin, co-vice-captain Chen Huifen, and Premila Hirubalan — who have 328 caps between them — decided to retire in May.

(From left) Nurul Baizura (co-vice captain), Josephine Yeo, Ruth Aitken (coach), Yu Mei Ling, Vanessa Lee (captain) of Team Singapore (netball) at the Media Tea with Netball Singapore event, yesterday. Aitken and her charges went on a training camp in Fiji earlier this month. Photo: Damien Teo

(From left) Nurul Baizura (co-vice captain), Josephine Yeo, Ruth Aitken (coach), Yu Mei Ling, Vanessa Lee (captain) of Team Singapore (netball) at the Media Tea with Netball Singapore event, yesterday. Aitken and her charges went on a training camp in Fiji earlier this month. Photo: Damien Teo

SINGAPORE — The future of Singapore’s netball team looked uncertain last month, after the experienced trio of captain Micky Lin, co-vice-captain Chen Huifen, and Premila Hirubalan — who have 328 caps between them — decided to retire in May.

But national head coach Ruth Aitken has since wasted no time rebuilding her squad as she prepares for next month’s Asian Championships, as well as the Missions Food Nations Cup in September.

One of the first things Aitken did to address the loss of experience in her team was to convince former national player Vanessa Lee to come out of international retirement.

In fact, Aitken was subsequently so impressed with what she saw of Lee, who won two Asian titles before retiring in 2012, that she also handed the 32-year-old the captain’s armband.

“Vanessa’s a pretty impressive woman,” explained Aitken. “She’s got a mature head on her, speaks a lot of wisdom within the group, and is very calm, measured and consistent in her approach to things. She marries these traits with a ruthless competitiveness on court.

“I felt someone like Vanessa was what our group needed at the moment, especially given that we have a much younger squad now.”

Despite having been out of the national setup for four years, Lee said she does not feel the pressure of having to fill the huge shoes left behind by the popular Lin.

“I admit it’s a huge task to replace Micky as captain,” said Lee, who has 57 caps. “But we have slightly different characters and personalities, and so I hope to bring a new style and dynamic to the team. My leadership style is about having open, two-way discussions with the players and coming to a conclusion together.

“In terms of preparation and adapting to the national team, it’s not been too hard for me. I’ve been keeping fit and playing regularly in the (M1) Netball Super League, so it’s not like I’ve had to start from scratch again. Now, it’s all about stepping up a gear for the two tournaments.”

Netball Singapore yesterday confirmed the 12 players who had been selected for the Asian Championships, which will be held in Bangkok from July 30 to Aug 7.

While there are some familiar names, such as co-captains Nurul Baizura and Charmaine Soh in the team list, Aitken has also called upon debutants Josephine Yeo and Zhang Ailin, after both players caught her eye during the Netball Super League.

Yeo, 25, said: “It was quite unexpected to be included in the national team. But I’m really happy to be here and it’s been a great experience so far training and playing with the rest of the team. The intensity is much higher than what I’m used to, but I’m sure I’ll be able to adapt to it soon enough.”

As part of the team’s preparations for the Asian Championships and Nations Cup, Aitken and her charges went on an eight-day training camp in Fiji earlier this month. The main focus during the stint was to improve the communication and understanding among the players. However, the team also worked on tweaks to their tactics as they adapted to life without Chen, Lin and Hirubalan.

“The reality is that you can’t replace that kind of experience overnight,” said Aitken who had coached New Zealand to the 2003 World Championships, and the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games golds.

“For example, the defensive work Micky and Premila did was crucial, but they also had that individual brilliance at times to open up games for us, while Huifen was a very important playmaker in the forward court.

“So, without them, the key thing now is how we operate as a team. It’ll be the graft and grind of the team in attack and defence that will enable us to perform and get the results. Our team defence is going to be really important now and we will focus on keeping the opposition at bay. This means our attackers need to defend from the front and put the pressure on early as well, instead of relying on the defence to come out with amazing interceptions all the time.”

Nonetheless, Aitken remained coy over her team’s chances of retaining their Asian title in Bangkok this year, although she is looking for the younger members of her squad to raise their game. Singapore are in Group A with Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Maldives and hosts Thailand.

“I only like to control what can be controlled so, for us, it’s about making sure we work very hard and be the very best we can,” said Aitken.

“It’s an eight-day competition, so a lot can happen during that time. If we play to our best, then we’re going to give any team a great go. We’re not the same team that won two years ago. We may have had great success over the past few years but now we’ve lost some key players. It’s a really great opportunity for the young ones to step up.”

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