Assalamualaikum WBT and Good Day Everyone. 2011 will long be remembered in the Cobra Netball Club as a remarkably eventful year in which they overcame adversity to succeed against the odds.
The past twelve months have seen the leavings and comings of new players, restructuring its training programmes,rebuilding its image and leaving behind the sour memories of yesteryear of 2010, all while dealing with injuries to key personnel.
More than 30 players represented Cobra in over 7 major tournaments this year with several new players, including Ocha, Sam, Hudzir, Fae, Ariz plus several students such as Ashraf, Piyan, Afdal and most recently Afzan and Razi,making their debuts as well as numerous other personal milestones celebrated along the journey. Making a debut also in 2011 is the lady 's team called Angels.
Despite this early hiccup, Cobra players kept onto their usual training programmes and spirits alive by preparing themselves for the next tournament which was the second edition of Harian Metro Netball Open held in Melaka. Confronting the netball giant Royale at the second grand final this year saw them contently wearing the second bridesmaid’s title yet yearning and burning for miracles.
The KSN Open was held at the stadium Bukit Kiara in July just prior to the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Less than a month after the heartbreaks of MBPJ Open, this time the club sent their biggest contingent ever with 5 teams namely Cobra Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Angels. The Alpha and Bravo made light works of their group stage against Prime, Phoenix A, Xtreme, True Legacy, Penang Netball and Reborn Rovers with only 1 game dropped by the Bravo against Wan heritage Legend B before being tested by Phoenix in the quarter-final. This time Cobra Alpha returned serve and avenged their previous defeats with a thrilling one goal extra-time victory against the club's nemesis; Legend at the semifinal. Thanks to Lim JW’s goal in the last dying second, setting up Cobra Alpha for another shot at the grand final against this time none other than the Royale team herself.
Cobra played the match of the year on that Sunday’s afternoon with such admirable ball handling skills, defending, attacking and superb conversion with clinical precision. Winning it by an eight goal margin was to be remembered and cherished forever in the club history against a team of such caliber. The KSN trophy was the first to be brought home this year.
The USM International Netball Championship has been around for years. In spite of the well known fact of its atrocious umpiring debacle, it managed to attract teams by the buckets. This was the second trip up north in late October after the UNIMAP Open which was always very memorable and highly anticipated by almost everyone particularly so for the newest members of the camp. Apart from the netball itself, the must do lists included the short tour of the island’s famous tourists’ sites particularly shopping for pickled fruits at plaza Chow Rasta, walking down the walkways of Padang Kota and Gurney Drive and the highest on the list was of course enjoying the mouth watering sumptuous Penang delicacies. Cobra won the USM title in 2009 but unfortunately handed it over to Royale in 2010.
Shah as the head coach had made some critical changes to the line ups that bore positive results when Cobra Alphascooped the men open division title whereas the University of Malaya team, laden with Cobra players bagged the gold plate in the institution of higher education category.
After a brief rest, the Cobra prepared their teams for the last tournament of the year i.e.; Kuala Lumpur Open Netball tournament. The trophy belonged to the Legend Club for the last 2 consecutive years and definitely they wanted to make a treble this year. Both Cobra Alpha and Bravo made to the semifinals with Cobra Bravo facing Legend A at court 1 and Alpha meeting Royale at court 2.
Unsurprisingly, Cobra Alpha outsmarted the Royale with excellent netball skills that saw them downing the giant with very good margin of victory before setting the final stage against; the Legend that showed Bravo the exit door pretty convincingly earlier in the second semi. The highly physical grand final match was indeed another thriller as in their previous numerous encounters that showed everyone how costly a mistake could be especially in the dying minutes of the game as was in this match when Cobra was trailing by a goal when an intercept was all it needed to turn the table around to level the game and with the subsequent centre pass lining up, the highly precious shot was successfully converted to steer the team ahead. With only a few seconds left, both teams didn’t waste any chances and by the time the final whistle was blown, Cobra Alpha was up by a goal which ultimately denying Legend of making a hatrick.
As much as you want to win by a lot of goals, there is nothing like winning such a big game by a single goal and sharing that with such a great team of players. I personally believe that there was a special buzz within this team and they were extremely confident going into the last match. Unfortunately, they did not play as they wanted in the first half but this team has a never-say-die attitude. It only took a few minutes and they were back in the game.
In summary, after some minor hiccups, the Cobra finished an incredible year with victories in the KSN Open, USM International Championship alongside with the University of Malaya and to come from behind to clinch the Kuala Lumpur Open title. In addition to this, we bagged the runner up plates in both the UNIMAP and Harian Metro Carnival. Cobra Angels being the only female team and barely a year old has done remarkably well this year with silver medals in Hari Belia Selangor Netball Karnival and Kejohanan Bola Jaring Terbuka Rakan Muda Challenge; third spot in Kejohanan Bola Jaring Terbuka Figos and Kejohanan Bola Jaring Terbuka Bandar Tun Razak.
With the emergence of new breed of young players on board we are very excited about the potential of this team – we have the ability to throw some different combinations on court depending on the availability of our players as well as our oppositions.
It’s been an extraordinary year and we are incredibly proud of our athletes and the team officials for what they’ve been able to achieve this year. It’s been an enormous commitment from everyone. We want to use all the training sessions and friendly games as an opportunity to allow the squad members and the invitees to show what they can do in terms of the next step up to Cobra Netball programmes. The club’s motto ‘Netball for All’ clearly points that all players are welcomed to the club provided that he or she sincerely wishes to embark on the netball platform…..”A netballer can come from anywhere but not everyone can become a netballer”.
Some of them are already in the squad, some are hopefully going to be in the squad soon, and all of them could potentially be Cobra players.
When asked of this year’s performance. Shah was “very pleased with the overall results of 3 major wins from seven major games, particularly with the emerging new talents, “They will need to soak up all the lessons and then apply that to their games in a consistent fashion.” He added.
A prospect that’s tantalizing for the head coach and all Cobra netball fans alike ahead of 2012 netball season.
Happy New Year 2012. May Allah SWT bless us always. Amin
NETBALL FOR ALL
