FOLLOWING on the heels of the Sunshine Girls’ bronze medal performance at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland, Netball Jamaica’s technical director Jill McIntosh said that the focus has shifted to fine-tuning for the 2015 World Cup in Sydney, Australia in August.

McIntosh, two weeks into her latest stint as technical director, is satisfied with the netballers’ fitness, but she said she wants more from a technical aspect.

“We worked very hard last year on new things and they (Sunshine Girls) were very good at the Commonwealth Games to finish third. So I think now it’s consolidating and trying to take another level. They have worked very hard on their fitness; that is certainly taking another level. We are working very hard on their skills, and hopefully their technical on-court play will be at another level,” McIntosh told the Jamaica Observer.

She said intense training and a possible Test series against the Barbados in June will form the core of the preparation for the World Cup.

“It is pure training for the Girls right now and we are hoping to have Barbados here in June and play a series here with them. The more games we play with teams outside of Jamaica, the better we will get,” she said.

“After this, we then need to name the 12 players that are going to the World Cup by the end of June and in July there will be a lot of match play and then end of July we are off to Australia. By that time the Girls will be ready,” McIntosh added.

The Netball World Cup, formerly known as the World Netball Championships, is staged every four years. It was first held in 1963 and is the premier event for international netball.

For the past 50 years the Sunshine Girls team has been consistently among the top five in international competitions without breaking into the top two.

According to McIntosh, the number four-ranked Sunshine Girls have a chance of lifting the World Cup.

“We are in the mix, and I think that anyone of the top four can win the World Cup. It won’t be easy, because to beat Australia on their home ground will be very difficult, but they [Sunshine Girls] are in there with a chance. They have to, on the day that they play New Zealand, on the day that they play England and on the day that they play Australia, to be at their best, and if they are at their best then they are right in there with a chance,” explained McIntosh, who arrived in Jamaica on March 31.

McIntosh said that the lack of confidence is what is preventing the Sunshine Girls from reaching the top.

“They [Sunshine Girls] are lacking a little bit of confidence when we are playing [against] them [Australia, New Zealand and England]. We can stay with them for about a half of the game, we did that last year, but we need to put four consistent quarters together. We did it against England in January, so they know they can put four quarters together, but they need to do it consistently when they are playing New Zealand and when they are playing Australia,” she ended.