The Cook Islands have their eye on the next Netball World Cup.
The Black Pearls last featured at the 2007 event and finished fourth at last month's Pacific Games under new coach Dale Atkinson.
Cook Islands netball coach Dale Atkinson. Photo: Netball New Zealand
She says they still need to improve their fitness and strength and conditioning but thinks her players would have put in a good showing had they been at this year's global showpiece in Sydney.
"I believe we were quite capable of being at that tournament and contesting, probably in the bottom half of the teams that were there. We have just returned from the Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea: we lost to PNG for the gold/silver playoff by two goals and then again to Samoa for the bronze but the team had only been together for not even three months so I thought we performed extremely admirably. We were capable of being at that [World Cup] tournament so it's about finding a way for us to get there and there is a rankings system, and of course all of that costs money".
Dale Atkinson says it's not easy to arrange matches for the Cook Islands team but they are close to confirming a series against New Zealand A in Rarotonga in December.
Cook Islands last competed at the Netball World Cup in 2007. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
