Tonga's netball team, the Tala, secured their title as the Pacific Netball Champions 2024, after defeating the Fiji Pearls (72-58) in Brisbane, Australia on 15 June 2024.

Tala coach, Jaqua Pori-Makea Simpson, told Matangi Tonga that it was an overwhelming accomplishment to be part of an “incredible legacy” that had defended their title as Champions of the Pacific Netball Series a second time.

“I am so proud of what our young women and Tala players have been able to achieve and debuting players each time is extraordinary – there is no doubt that with each series win the expectation gets harder and to achieve under those conditions is pretty special.”

Each time that the Talas play world-ranked teams, there is a risk to their ranking depending on the results. Right now, the Tala’s still hold their No. 8 rank in the Netball World Ranking list.

“Our World Ranking is also dependent on the results of other International matches throughout the ranking period, so we will have to wait and see, but for now, we have done everything we can to maintain 8^th position” Jaqua said.

The Tala’s lost one game in this series, in the second round against Namibia, but they bounced back the next day after defeating Samoa.

Coach Jaqua thinks that they struggled with Namibia’s tempo, “The African style of netball is a challenge for us, we lost our basic fundamentals and structures and we needed to adjust much quicker than we did,” she told Matangi Tonga.

“In a tournament style competition when you are playing games back-to-back there is not a lot of time to mentally dwell on what has happened and it’s important to focus on yourselves and move onto the next challenge.

“We did an outstanding job to bounce back against Samoa and to tidy up some of our own missteps from the previous match.”

Uneeq Palavi was named MVP of the season for her outstanding performances throughout the championship.

The Tala will have a well-earned break for now while players have returned to their domestic competitions to finish out the season.

Tonga Netball’s focus will now shift to the U-21 World Youth Cup Qualifiers in the Cook Islands on September.