2 October 2007
By Graham Croker
Sydney University Sports Scholarship holder Susan Pratley has been selected in the 12-woman Australian team to contest the 2007 World Netball Championships, to be held in Auckland from 10-17 November.
The Australians will be out to regain the world crown they lost to New Zealand when the championships were held in Jamaica four years ago.
Pratley has been in top form during 2007 and recently turned in a near faultless shooting display to help guide Sydney TAB Swifts to a 45-37 win over Melbourne First National Phoenix in the final of the Commonwealth Bank Trophy played in front of a crowd of 8000 at Sydney`s Acer Arena.
Goal attack Pratley shot 23 from 25 (92 per cent), while team-mate Catherine Cox shot 22 from 26 (85 per cent) to overwhelm the Phoenix and post back-to-back Commonwealth Bank trophies.
Australian coach Norma Plummer says she's named her strongest ever Australian netball team for the world championships, and she's confident they are peaking at the right time to win back the No.1 tag.
The squad is vastly different from the one that lost the title in 2003, with only three players remaining - captain Liz Ellis, vice-captain Sharelle McMahon and shooter Catherine Cox. Plummer has been rebuilding the side since that defeat and it has been paying dividends as the younger generation, including Pratley, have come of age, allowing Australia to dominate their trans-Tasman archrivals in their most recent meetings.
"That's where we've had to be patient to wait for that maturity to come through and it's now coming to the fore,'' Plummer says.
"And of course, it's paying dividends for us because they've all performed extremely well given their opportunities in the international arena.''
After a tough couple of years which saw Australia winless against New Zealand for 2005 and most of 2006, Plummer's team have steadily improved against their old foes.
Pratley was a member of the squad that recently took out the July Test series against New Zealand and Jamaica.
She will journey to Melbourne for two squad camps this month before the team departs for New Zealand.
Australian squad: Liz Ellis (capt), Sharelle McMahon (vc), Bianca Chatfield, Catherine Cox, Mo'onia Gerrard, Selina Gilsenan, Natalie Medhurst, Lauren Nourse, Susan Pratley, Julie Prendergast, Laura von Bertouch, Natalie von Bertouch.