27 Nov 2015

Sport: Fiji netball coach says UK chance just reward for Lutua

12:18 pm on 27 November 2015

Fiji netball coach Kate Carpenter says Maria Lutua's move to the English Superleague is well deserved and an exciting step for both the player and netball in the country.

The 26 year old Pearls shooter will play for the Yorkshire Jets next year.

Lutua told the club's website she is passionate about promoting netball and believes this could be an opening to allow more girls from Fiji to play at that level in the future.

Fiji's Maria Lutua during the 2015 Netball World Cup.

Fiji's Maria Lutua during the 2015 Netball World Cup. Photo: Netball World Cup SYDNEY 2015

Kate Carpenter says the UK league is getting stronger and is happy to see her vice captain rewarded for a great year.

"The standard of competition is something we can't offer here locally in Fiji so the opportunity to play at this level week in week out is really exciting and obviously the league has lifted again going into the 2016 season, so there are a number of internationals that featured at World Cup that will be playing in that competition".

"That's the fantastic thing about the World Cup is that it's a global event and there are always people interested in performances of athletes and now there's a growth of the Super Leagues and the standards throughout the countries. MJ [Lutua in] early 2000s was over and connected with the Celtic Dragons so this time with Yorkshire Jets - nice opportunity to be in a different environment under different coaching amongst different athletes".

Kate Carpenter says Fiji also have three internationals that will be competing in the Singapore Superleague in the middle of next year.