Nottingham Forest captain Niamh Cooper believes her side can fight for the title this season
Niamh Cooper.(Image: Ben Lumley)
Nottingham Forest might only be in the second year of their existence but skipper Niamh Cooper is already dreaming big.
In their first season in the Netball Super League, Forest were one of the surprise packages as they finished fifth, just three points off the semi-finals.
And with a largely unchanged squad bar a couple of key additions in Ané Retief and Anya Williams, Belfast native Cooper believes that they can improve even further this campaign and challenge for the title.
Reflecting on the first season, Cooper said: “It was fantastic. As a club, we were really striving to be in the top four but with hindsight and having had some time to reflect on last season, I think we did really well to build the foundations of the franchise.
A&E doctor Niamh Cooper believes her side won’t be underestimated this campaign(Image: Ben Lumley)
“A lot of the clubs underestimated us coming into the league. Some of the players like Rolene (Streutker) were relatively unknown and came on and proved to everybody that she has got a real point to make. A couple of the clubs now really see us as true title contenders, and so they should.
“This year, they will probably work a bit harder to look at how to combat some of the different tactics we brought, especially around the Super Shot.
“This year we have got increased depth on our bench. We brought in Anya and Ané, two brilliant players in attack and defence.
“The goal is to be top four. I think we have everything we need in this team to be a Championship-winning side. If we can align the strengths of every player we have in the 10, we have everything we need to succeed so hopefully you will see us on finals day.”
The arrival of Retief and Williams should help solve one of the biggest challenges that Forest faced last season, a lack of depth off the bench.
Nottingham Forest are in their second season in the Netball Super League(Image: Ben Lumley)
While the passionate fans at the Motorpoint Arena were able to cheer on a team who could match the league’s best when they were on song, that did not happen quite often enough to emerge as true title contenders.
For Cooper, the arrival of two new faces could be the answer to those issues as the team tries to live up to the expectations of the sports-mad city.
She added: “We talk about togetherness and strength in numbers and having that core eight and adding Ané and Anya has really strengthened us. We all know each other really well so it allows us to be direct in training. We can cut out the fluff.
“Anya has brought real energy into training. She is the youngest in the team but you wouldn’t know it because she is so loud. She has brought this real energy and vibrancy to energy every week. She’s a really accurate shooter, she can play across goal shooter and goal attack. And her movement is very different to the styles we have.
“Ané is probably one of the hardest workers in the team. She has that real true South African grit, she takes things on really well and wants to learn continuously. She’s come in and been really impressive and I think she will be a force to be reckoned with.
“I think consistency was something that we needed to work on and that comes from being a new team and connections weren’t quite there.
“Also the depth on our bench, to be able to turn around and completely change the style up with an Anya or an Ané is a real added string to our bow and will give other teams a lot more to think about this season.”
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