Lynch Sacked

Newcastle Herald

Thursday December 1, 2005

Renee Valentine - Netball

THE sacking of Hunter Jaegers coach Maria Lynch three days out from their first training camp sent shockwaves through the national netball league squad yesterday.

Lynch coached the Jaegers in their first two seasons and was reappointed for the another three in September.

But the Jaegers' inaugural mentor was told yesterday that her employment with Netball NSW had been terminated.

The Jaegers overachieved under Lynch in their maiden national netball league season to finish equal fifth, and in season two they came painstakingly close to making the semi-finals.

They finished equal fourth with the Melbourne Kestrels this year but missed out on a play-offs spot on inferior goal difference.

The efforts of the Jaegers in their first two seasons is the best by any new team to the competition in its nine-year history.

Players were in disbelief yesterday when they were told of Lynch's sacking by Netball NSW.

"We are all shocked and disappointed because our coach has got the runs on the board," Jaegers vice-captain Kimberlee Gilmour said.

"You only have to look at the past two seasons, our first two seasons in the league, where we pushed on the door of the semi-finals."

Netball NSW chief executive Ian Harkness contacted The Herald yesterday to make an official statement but would not be drawn to comment on the situation any further than to say: "The employer-employee relationship between Netball NSW and Maria Lynch ended today.

"We will put a process in place now to find a replacement."

The Jaegers' two-day camp this weekend will still go ahead.

It is believed Harkness will address the new-look Jaegers squad, assembled by Lynch, at the start of the camp, which Harkness said would be headed up by incumbent captain Jane Altschwager.

Altschwager, who was lured to Newcastle last season by Lynch, urged her teammates to focus on preparing for next season.

"It is disappointing that Maria and Netball NSW have come to this, but hopefully the team can get together this weekend and move on," Altschwager said yesterday.

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Jaegers coach sacked

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"We need to focus on being together as a team, and hopefully we will find a replacement soon so that we can get together and start building for the next season."

The Herald was unable to contact Lynch last night.

The Jaegers organising committee of Greg Gilmour, Tony Munro and David Gazzoli has also been disbanded by Netball NSW.

It is believed Harkness will head up a new planning and strategy committee for the Jaegers, which will be based in Sydney.

"It came as a huge surprise to me, and I am absolutely baffled by the situation," Gilmour said.

"I spoke with [Netball NSW president] Wendy Archer today and expressed my views very strongly on what I thought were very, very ill thought-out decisions with no regards for the consequences at ground level in Newcastle.

"Maria had the support of the entire team. Nobody in NSW will give reasons other than Maria had brought the NSW Netball Association into disrepute."

Netball NSW gave no explanation as to what Lynch did exactly to bring the association into disrepute.

Lynch, who was asked to sign a probationary two-month contract when she was reappointed as coach for the next three years, had already assembled a squad for 2006.

© 2005 Newcastle Herald

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