Tala, Tonga’s National Netball Team will head into the 2023 PacificAus Sports Netball Series in Gold Coast, Australia from 24-29 April, as reigning champions.
In 2022, the national netball team finished both the PacificAus Series and the Netball World Cup Qualifier Oceania unbeaten, and currently ranks 7th in worldwide netball rankings.
Eight nations will compete in the second year of this series and for the first time, African nations, Kenya, Malawi and Zambia will compete against returning teams of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Singapore and Tonga.
Tonga Netball CEO, Salote Sisifa said today that the upcoming PacificAus series is a great opportunity for Tala to get out of their comfort zone playing within the Pacific Netball Family to playing with teams from the African nations, which they haven’t played before.
“This is beneficial for Tonga and Pacific Teams as it provides more games if not we would be waiting for the Pacific Games every-four years,” she said.
"Tonga had asked Netball Australia to reach out to teams from other regions of Africa and Europe to join as this is something Tala needed because we do not have the finances to tour beyond Australia. So the teams from Africa coming to Australia is a real bonus for Tala and Pacific teams, means we get more netball and is cost efficient for us all, which we are grateful for."
