2019 will be midcourter Jess Eales’ third year in the Fever training partner system after spending the last two years captaining the club’s ANL representative, the Western Sting, which included a Gold Medal win 2017.
Shooter Emma Cosh and defender Jess Penny will also be familiar faces to West Coast fans, as they return for their second season as training partners for the Fever. The pair have built a strong on-court relationship after spending last year playing under Eales for the Sting and, most recently, as members of the Coastal Sharks’ WANL premiership winning side in 2018.
Up and coming defender Sunday Aryang will fill the void left by Olivia Lewis, who was recently awarded a full-time contract with the Fever for 2019.
Born in Ethiopia before moving to Perth at a young age, Aryang was selected in the year’s West Australian 19/U State Team and was named in the National 19/U squad who attended a camp in Canberra, where she was named in the top three athletes in the country.
All four athletes are Western Australian locals and join a squad where that is a consistent theme. According to West Coast Fever head coach Stacey Marinkovich, it’s a clear sign that the sport is strong in the state.
“All four of these athletes are wonderful products of the Netball WA Athlete Pathway, and of our full squad of 10 contracted athletes and four training partners, nine are from WA, so that certainly shows the strength of Western Australian netball, and that’s something we’re incredibly proud of.”
Being part of the training partner system is an incredible opportunity for these four young athletes to train with some of the best netballers in the world and to continue to develop their individual games.
“We have been lucky enough to have had three of the four training partners in our environment for some time, and we’re will aware of what Sunday is capable of, so I am incredibly excited to have these athletes join us in 2019,” Marinkovich said.
“I am looking forward to seeing these four athletes join us in the training environment in 2019 and I have no doubt that they will challenge our contracted athletes in different ways.”
The training partners will enter the West Coast Fever environment in the coming weeks and will train alongside the 10-player squad throughout the 2019 season.
