Vitality Netball Superleague's Celtic Dragons in new era
Head coach Tania Hoffman and vice-captain Kalifa McColin speak to Sky Sports about a 'new era' for Celtic Dragons
Saturday 30 March 2019 12:40, UK
"I think that the best is yet to come from Dragons..."
In the middle of her first season as their head coach, Tania Hoffman is focused on the road ahead when it comes to Celtic Dragons and means it when she signals that further improvements are en route from the Vitality Netball Superleague franchise.
It's marked down in the record books that the side notched up just two victories per season for the past three years. That's a record that doesn't sit well with them but it's one that they cannot erase now.
Instead they are attacking this season with real purpose and the determination is there for them to finish on an altogether different level this time around.
That determination is evident from the way in which the players address their performances on social media, both wins and losses, and was clear during their 62-51 victory over London Pulse.
"It's almost like a new franchise. New coach, lots of new players this season so it's a time to be able to challenge ourselves and head into a new era," Hoffman told Sky Sports.
The Kiwi coach's arrival was formally announced at the end of August 2018 and it marked a change with the franchise having an 'exclusive' head coach. Previously the franchise's head coach also took charge of the Welsh national side and Hoffman sees the benefits of their current model.
"I'm able to completely concentrate on Celtic Dragons and that's really important," noted Hoffman.
"It's now a full-time programme in terms of what I do with the Celtic Dragons and we want to be better at what we do so that includes performance analysis, nutrition, sports science and it's growing the opportunity for the players."
"We've pushed some of the top teams but what we need to do is make sure that we actually keep on going and that we don't stop part way through. We need to just keep on pushing more and improving more."
Hoffman herself cites the opinion that Tamsin Greenway shared in her Superleague half-term report as one of the methods to ensure that their second half of term is stronger than the first.
"We are playing really well as a team and Tamsin is quite right in the fact that actually we do need some players to step up. But our culture, our team culture, is fantastic and I couldn't expect more from the team [in that regard]."
On Monday evening against London Pulse, the Vitality Player of the Match Chelsea Lewis was an individual who did stand up while vice-captain Kalifa McCollin showed maturity to pull herself back into the fixture after a shaky individual start.
McCollin and Lewis both returned the franchise this season, from Mavericks and Team Bath respectively, and for McCollin that was an easy decision to make.
"I made the move back to Dragons because it feels like home here," said the Trinidad and Tobago international.
"People look at Dragons as the underdogs - we haven't won more than two games for the past three years - but this season we came out firing. We really demand a lot from each other. We had games where we could have won but we just fell short so looking ahead into the second half of the season, we’re definitely going to make a lot of adjustments."
"It's an entirely different look for Dragons this season. We have so much variety; we have players from Fiji, players from England, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.
"We can definitely compete and beat some of the teams in the top four."
The question on everyone's lips is how do they convert narrow losses into victories and how do they go about toppling some of the dominant sides?
Well, for both Hoffman and McCollin, the words "consistency" and "sticking to task" are prevalent alongside one other facet, and a facet that's an ongoing building block.
"One of the things [that needed to change when I arrived] is belief because Dragons haven't had a lot of success over the years," said Hoffman.
"It's finding that belief that they can win games and not just win games against similar opposition but actually the top four.
"So we're still finding that but we've seen glimpses of that in the games where we've drawn quarters with top teams but not been able to push on."
Another test against one of the 'big' sides will arrive soon as Dragons' forthcoming fixture list reads; Severn Stars at home, Manchester Thunder away and Strathclyde Sirens back at home.
Without question they'll have their sights set on multiple victories as they aim to back up their first home win of the season against Pulse, and show that the only way is up when it comes to this new era for Celtic Dragons.
Watch more live Vitality Netball Superleague when Strathclyde Sirens host Manchester Thunder on Monday, April 1 live on Sky Sports Mix & Action from 7.15pm. Also, Sky Sports will be showing every game of the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup in July
