What a fantastic feeling!!!!! Pretty sure everyone is still on cloud nine after the epic performance during grand final match at the KSN Open 2011, recently held at the Stadium Bukit Kiara. To top it up with a champion title was another icing on the cake.
After almost a month of intensive training sessions plus some friendly matches, the Cobra Netball Club sent their biggest contingent ever this year consisting of 4 men teams namely Cobra Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta as well as 1 female team, Cobra Angels to Stadium Bukit Kiara. Only Cobra Delta and Angels didn’t go through to the second round of the tournament whereas the rest advanced through. Cobra Charlie went into the second round. Cobra Bravo reached the quarter final and finally Cobra Alpha, this year’s KSN Open winner.
Looking back through history since our first appearance in this KSN Open way back in 2008, 4 years had elapsed since then before this victorious title was achievable. Not that we had never been there before. Yes… Cobra was crowned champions of USM Open as well as the Legend Open, both in 2009 and several other first runner up titles prior to or following that. Yet, the KSN title still remained very elusive. Held at one of the best indoor stadiums in the Klang Valley plus some lucrative prizes to be grabbed, it definitely managed to attract more than 48 women and 18 men teams.
Nonetheless, bringing the crown home was not an easy feat, as the club had to go through so many obstacles beginning from the preparatory phase, trainings, finding sponsorships etc. Once the games started on Sunday, each team battled it out on the courts and against the Royale Netball Club, irrefutably, Malaysia’s best men netball club at the grand final was something to be remembered and cherished forever. This was the third time both teams had met at the grand final level, firstly at the UNIMAP Open early this year and most recently at the Harian Metro Netball Carnival at Melaka where we bagged the silver medalist tag in both occasions.
…"Who would have thought last week that we would be crowned champion this year"…Not many I think, especially with all the other big guns in the Klang Valley such as the Royale, Wan Heritage Legend, X-treme and Phoenix were there. The daunting tasks of facing so many brilliant teams would always be at the back of our minds. However, we could sense a different sort of attitude and spirit within the Cobra’s camp this year, as there was a different kind of hunger for more success particularly after wearing the bride maid’s title in the last two outings within this year alone.
Prior to reaching this grand final match, Cobra Alpha had a series of tough runs including facing X-treme in the preliminary round (11-6) Wan Heritage Legend 1(11-10) at the quarter final which was another triller. In fact, nothing separated these two teams as both were on par and indeed, during their last encounter at the Harian Metro Netball Carnival, the game went into an extra time. Similarly, this time, both had to settle it at extra time before grabbing the semi-final spot, facing Phoenix B whereby they were demolished pretty convincingly; 10-18.Cobra Alpha was spearheaded by the captain, Kie wearing the centre bib, assisted by Ashie at WA. The shooting department was manned by Kok Tai at GA and the GS bib donned by Rizal. The defensive end was headed by Doul as the utility defender at WD complimenting the two young circle defenders in the faces of Ucop at GD and Lim JW at GK. The reserve player was Ariz. Royale on the other hand, had lined up their full squad members consisting of Dosa, their captain at centre teaming with Firdaus at WA. Pijot and Panjang were their regular shooting combination. The back lane was guarded by Azza at WD whereas Ah Wei and Zam shouldered the circle defending responsibilities at GD and GK respectively. The grand final match was umpired by Dr Suhaimi and Cik Erna from the National Pool of Umpires.
The game started with Dosa taking the first centre pass for Royale which was quickly brought into the goal circle. A long pass into the goal circle missed its target, Panjang, and the turnover ball quickly found Rizal, Cobra’s GS right under the goal post at the other end. As in his other previous matches, Rizal was very tentative in his execution, missing this opening goal as nervousness and jittery hands saw his first attempt falling short and quickly rebounded by the lengthy arms of Zam and within a split second, finding its way back to the Royale shooting end. A penalty pass was awarded when Lim JW, Cobra GK contacted the GS. However, an uncharacteristic blunder of short pass during the process of setting up a penalty, quickly forced a turnover and the ball was Cobra’s and within seconds, travelled through the midcourt finding this time, Kok Tai, Cobra's GA and he subsequently netted the opening goal of the match successfully.
From there on, the match was played at a blazing speed with quick transitions and passages of ball across court. Cobra played the match of her life on Sunday afternoon and undeniably one of the best ever watched and played. Every division of the court was well and thoroughly guarded creating a brick wall of defence for the Royale attacking team to penetrate, much to the dismay and frustration of their players as the delivery of ball kept falling short. This was, on the other hand, brought great joys and satisfaction to Cobra’s bench and supporters. Shah as the Head Coach of Cobra had made a brilliant decision of swapping Lim JW at the beginning of the match, from the shooting end to goal keeping, partnering with Ucop at GD in trying to thwart the Royale shooting aces; Panjang and Pijot. This timely decision was rewarded handsomely as the long arms of Lim JW and Ucop created havoc in the goal circle causing plenty of turnovers.
The midcourt of Cobra led by Kie and Ashie was simply exceptional. They had a field day, running rampantly with good tussles all over their areas with their exceptional reading of plays and delivery of quality ball to their shooters. As the momentum of the game steadily building up, it came to an abrupt stop half way through in the first quarter with an untimely departure of Royale’s GA, Pijot as he was assisted out of court with a calf injury, causing another blow to the Royale. Re-shuffling of their players saw Zam, the GK moving to GA, and bringing in another young talented ex- Rebond Rovers into goal keeping position.The second quarter saw Cobra enjoying more freedom as the confidence and momentum built earlier on continued here with excellent movement of ball across court, right from the defensive end, down to mid court and polished up by superb finishing from both Cobra shooters with Rizal, finding his usual rhythm and tempo, netting 6/8 goals at 75% and well supported by Kok Tai at 80%, netting 8 goals. On the other hand, Royale was left with “catch-up” netball throughout the remainder of the game as their characteristic flamboyant play was systematically cut short as they struggled for both possession and conversion. As the game nearing its end, the atmosphere was electric with deafening sounds from the cheering crowds. Once, the final whistle was blown, the crowd went into overdrive as they jumped up and down, flooded by emotions as the KSN Open Title was finally brought home for the first time in such a gallant manner. Alhamdulillah. Thank You ALLAH so much for this beautiful gift of yours.
Many of us are still trying to grip this moment as "a dream come true"... "This is one of those things you never forget and you will treasure the memories forever,"... as one of the players said later. What an incredible fairytale story to win a grand finale with friends supporting you. This is an absolutely dream coming true. To win any game by 1 goal is great enough, but winning by 8 was definitely over the moon especially against a team of such calibre. The final score was 14-6.Credits must also be given to the Royale team as they had been able to dominate the scene and maintaining it for the last 4 years or so, and definitely, they would be coming back with a vengeance in the future. Therefore, maintaining this title would require some extraordinary efforts from everyone in Cobra.
GROUPING
| GROUP A | ||||||
| TEAM | HIJAU KUNING | REBORN ROVERS | PAHANG PHANTERS | COBRA CHARLIE | PHEONIX B | POINT |
| HIJAU KUNING | 9 - 3 (3) | 10 - 1 (3) | 8 - 11 (0) | 6 - 10 (0) | 6 | |
| REBORN ROVERS | 3 - 9 (0) | 9 - 7 (3) | 3 - 7 (0) | 3 - 12 (0) | 3 | |
| PAHANG PHANTERS | 0 - 15 (0) | 7 - 9 (0) | 1 - 10 (0) | 2 - 16 (0) | 0 | |
| COBRA CHARLIE | 11 - 8 (3) | 7 - 3 (3) | 15 - 0 (3) | 4 - 13 (0) | 9 | |
| PHEONIX B | 10 - 6 (3) | 12 - 3 (3) | 16 - 2 (3) | 13 - 4 (3) | 12 | |
| GROUP B | ||||||
| TEAM | COBRA BRAVO | TRUE LEGACY | REBORN ROVERS B | PENANG NETBALL | WAN HERITAGE LEGEND 2 | POINT |
| COBRA BRAVO | 14 - 0 (3) | 8 - 4 (3) | 13 - 11 (3) | 8 - 9 (0) | 9 | |
| TRUE LEGACY | 0 - 14 (0) | 6 - 7 (0) | 9 - 4 (3) | 3 - 9 (0) | 3 | |
| REBORN ROVERS B | 4 - 8 (0) | 7 - 6 (3) | 8 - 2 (3) | 2 - 12 (0) | 6 | |
| PENANG NETBALL | 1 - 13 (0) | 4 - 9 (0) | 2 - 8 (0) | 1 - 12 (0) | 0 | |
| WAN HERITAGE LEGEND 2 | 9 - 8 (3) | 9 - 3 (3) | 12 - 2 (3) | 21 - 1 (3) | 12 | |
| GROUP C | ||||||
| TEAM | KEMAMAN JUNIOR | LEGACY | COBRA DELTA | WAN'S HERITAGE LEGEND 1 | ROYALE | POINT |
| KEMAMAN JUNIOR | 9 - 6 (3) | 6 - 8 (0) | 4 - 15 (0) | 5 - 12 (0) | 3 | |
| LEGACY | 6 - 9 (0) | 12 - 5 (3) | 3 - 13 (0) | 0 - 28 (0) | 3 | |
| COBRA DELTA | 8 - 6 (3) | 5 - 12 (0) | 3 - 21 (0) | 5 - 20 (0) | 3 | |
| WAN'S HERITAGE LEGEND 1 | 15 - 4 (3) | 13- 3 (3) | 21 - 0 (3) | 14 - 14 (1) | 10 (63) | |
| ROYALE | 12 - 5 (3) | 28 - 0 (3) | 20 - 5 (3) | 14 - 14 (1) | 10 (74) | |
| GROUP D | ||||||
| TEAM | COBRA ALPHA | PRIME | PHOENIX A | X-TRME | LIM KOK WING | POINT |
| COBRA ALPHA | 30 -0 (3) | 12 - 8 (3) | 11 - 6 (3) | - | 9 | |
| PRIME | 0 - 30 (0) | 1 - 27 (0) | 0 - 23 (0) | - | 0 | |
| PHOENIX A | 8 - 12 (0) | 27 - 1 (3) | 8 - 9 (0) | - | 3 | |
| X-TRME | 6 - 11 (0) | 23 - 1 (3) | 9 - 8 (3) | - | 6 | |
| LIM KOK WING | - | - | - | - | - | |
FINAL MATCH : COBRA vs ROYALE
Wassalam
