Parr Aiming For One More Shot At Netball World Championships

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday November 24, 2007

By LUKE KEENAN

ILLAWARRA and Fiji netball star Marji Parr won't be following Australian great Liz Ellis into retirement.

Ellis bowed out of the sport after guiding her country to a 42-38 win over New Zealand in the final of the World Championships in Auckland last weekend.

Several top players have since followed Ellis' lead but Parr, Fiji's player of the tournament, believes she still has plenty to offer.

As a result, the 31-year-old Corrimal Cadets player-coach plans to still be around come the next world titles in 2011.

"There are players that are 35, 36, 38 at world championships and they're playing good, strong netball," she explained.

"For me, my goal is to be around at the next world championships in Singapore.

"I'd like to have maybe this season as a quiet year, to just re-focus on my work and my family, and then the two years following as building back into it."

Parr went into the week-long tournament convinced Fiji, eighth at the 2003 world titles in Jamaica, had improved enough to make it as far as the semi-finals.

But a shock six-goal loss to the Cook Islands cruelled that dream.

"For us to slide out of the top eight it was something that really sent us reeling," said Parr, who only returned to Australia late on Thursday.

"We weren't being unrealistic - we didn't bite off more than we can achieve - it just didn't happen on the day."

However, that defeat fired Parr's side up and convincing victories over Scotland, Wales and Botswana followed to ensure Fiji finished ninth.

"The reality was it did make us re-focus on our weaknesses in the team," Parr said.

"And it also made us really step up and say 'we have to recover in our last three games and come away with major wins to prove to the world we should have been in the top eight'."

Parr revelled in Australia's victory over the hosts, which allowed Ellis a fairytale end to her glittering career.

"For them to beat New Zealand on home soil it was just such a sweet victory," she said.

World titles aside, Parr plans to be heavily involved in the advancement of netball at a grassroots level in Fiji and to continue her association with Corrimal.

"I think it's important the players playing at higher levels come back and put something back into their local region," the 31-year-old said.

© 2007 Illawarra Mercury

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