Harding Lifts Sights After National Camp
Newcastle Herald
Thursday July 26, 2007
WHILE her Hunter Jaegers teammates were enjoying a well-deserved break, Alex Harding was being exposed to some of the toughest matchplay of her short but impressive elite netball career.
Harding flew to Melbourne for an Australian under-21 camp on July 1 at the same time the national netball league went into recess for four weeks.There the agile Jaegers goal shooter experienced arduous training sessions plus games against the English and Jamaican open sides, who were rounding out preparations for the world championships in New Zealand in November, as well as the Victorian men's team.They may have only been practice matches, but it was the first time Harding had represented her country, and the Central Coast 21-year-old found the five-day camp extremely beneficial."We had two hours of training every day then played games every night, except on the Thursday when we went to watch the Aussie team play Jamaica, so it was pretty full-on," Harding said."All in all it was a really intense week, but I learned so much and had a really great time. And I think for the week I shot in the high 90s [shooting percentage] for all games, so that was good to put out a good performance when I had to."This year is my last year at 21 level, so it was just awesome to make the team and to have that bit of experience and to get a taste for representing your country. Hopefully in the next few years I can step up into the open squad, which would be awesome."The national league rookie, who has played in eight games for the Jaegers this season, plans to use that experience as Hunter attempt to close the door on the country's elite competition with three strong performances, starting tomorrow night against the AIS Canberra Darters in the nation's capital.The Jaegers return to Newcastle to host the Queensland Firebirds on August 3 then meet the Swifts in their last ever national league outing, in Sydney on August 11."I feel like I improved my game even more coming back from 21s," Harding said. "The games were so fast I couldn't believe how fast the play was and it's just another step up. "It's so fast, they were just zipping the ball around. It really does give you a taste of what is next, and I'm definitely going to be trying to bring that back to CBT [Commonwealth Bank Trophy]."We certainly don't want to leave anything on the court, because there is no Jaegers next year and we really want to go out with a bang and not leave anything behind."
© 2007 Newcastle Herald
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