Members of Jamaica's Sunshine Girls at the Norman Manley International Airport yesterday, shortly after arriving home from the Fast5 World Netball Series in New Zealand. - Ian Allen

Hot on the heels of a creditable performance at the recently concluded Fast5 World Netball Series Marva Bernard, president of the Jamaica Netball Association, says the work is just beginning for the Sunshine Girls.

The Sunshine Girls put in a strong performance to beat South Africa 44-17 in a bronze medal play-off, to rebound sharply from the disappointment of losing out to Australia in the previous day's semi-final.

The result saw the team improve on their performance at last year's tournament, where they finished fourth.

"We knew we had to improve on our performance for anyone to believe in what we believe in," Bernard told STAR Sports, following the team's arrival at the Norman Manley International Airport yesterday.

"They worked hard, but they haven't begun to work yet. To get to number one, two or three in the longer version of the game it is going to take twice as much work as we have put in so far," she added.

"The good thing about this tournament is now that they have seen what it takes, they will analyse why Australia slipped out of our hands. For us, we will be looking to put all the necessary support around the team, hopefully we can get some of the resources that Australia, New Zealand and England have, which makes them one two and three, talent alone can't do it."

In a low-scoring encounter, the Australians came from behind to clip the Jamaicans 27-25 to progress to their first final. However, the team was defeated by New Zealand 56-27 in the final.

Young Sunshine Girl, Thristina Harwood, was named Player of the Tournament.

The Jamaicans will now turn their attention to an upcoming series in January against number three-ranked England, which will also include world number one team, New Zealand.