The Crest Fiji Men’s Netball Team made history by winning the 2024 Men’s Netball Nations Series Merlion Cup after defeating Australia 20&U in the final 55 – 54 at the Jurong East Sports Complex in Singapore.
This victory marks the first-ever international men’s netball tournament win for Fiji.
Fiji played a total of seven matches during the Nations Series campaign, securing six wins and suffering just one loss. Their only defeat came in the third round-robin match against Australia, but the team avenged this loss in the final to claim the title.
Fiji played England Trailblazers in their opening match, their first ever international opponent in over 20 years and the team was expecting a tough match.
Head coach Jioweli Makare instructed his players to follow through the gameplay strategy they’ve been working on throughout their preparations, the team build early momentum into the first quarter, England fought back in the last two quarters as Fiji slowly lost momentum which almost cost them the game.
“Our first game against England, we played our structured gameplan, I had to take a bit of a risky decision and let everyone play in our first match as I needed to see everyone’s performance at this level.”
After accessing players’ performance and work rate from their opening match, Coach Makare managed to put together his lineup for game 2 against New Zealand A Men’s. Coach Makare’s plan worked out well as Fiji cruised past New Zealand with an outstanding performance 57-38.
Australia 20&U team tested Fiji’s fast flow and high elevation play when they played in the third-round robin match. The Australian team, with its combination of speed and skill, disrupted Fiji’s game plan, leading to Fiji’s first loss of the tournament, 48-60.
“Australia played clinically with a structured gameplan with lots of experience even though they’re young, we noted down everything we needed to work on and addressed this in camp.”
Fiji played Singapore in their fourth match where they recorded another stunning win 62 – 27. Their last round robin match against Hong Kong saw them recorded their biggest win of the campaign 82 -20 with a dominant performance.
Fiji advances to the main Final after beating England Trailblazers the 1st Semi Final 62 – 27.
In the grand finale, Fiji displayed an outstanding performance against a very well structured Australian 20&U team; despite trailing from the first quarter, they fought back right in the last minute to secure the Victory 55 – 54 and claim the Men’s Netball Nations Series Merlion Cup.
“The team was confident throughout this series, the players were happy and excited taking the court and getting that experience of playing internationally against top Men’s netball teams, this victory is a testament to our players hard work.”
