WHERE do the current Wentworth A Graders rank among the best ever Sunraysia netball teams?
It’s the great debate that was sparked by Australian men’s netball squad member Jake Hederics in last Saturday’s Sunraysia Daily, where he said: “There may not be a netball team as good as this again in the SFNL.”
Hederics is the brother of the Roos’ playing coach, Amanda Edwards.
Now, before you accuse him of nepotism, just look at his credentials.
As a national-team player, his knowledge of the game itself, and what he knows about local netball now and when he grew up here, is impressive.
Red Cliffs coach Romany Bowen backed up what Jake said after her side was outclassed by the Roos by 55 goals last Saturday.
“You had the Imps seven a decade or so ago that included players like Ali Callahan and ‘Keesy’ (Laura Kee). They won a couple of flags (2013, 2015), but they couldn’t string a winning sequence together like this Wenty team,” Bowen said.
The Roos’ record alone puts them firmly in the ‘GOAT’ (greatest of all time) conversation.
They are on a 56-game winning streak, dating back to their 2019 grand-final loss to Kyra Nathan’s Ouyen United.
It’s always difficult to compare eras.
But this week, I sought the opinion of the woman who the SFNL A Grade netball best-and-fairest medal is named after.
To me, along with some of her Irymple Secondary College students, Jackie Horkings has been a netball figure of mystery.
Was she an absolute gun player from a bygone?
Unless you’re in the inner sanctum of Sunraysia netball, you’d probably think she is, because her story has never been properly told by the SFNL.
As it turns out, she played a massive role in getting the netball competition up and running in 1991.
Before she tackled the GOAT question, Jackie, who played for South Mildura, explained how the Sunraysia netball league was born.
“When I came to Mildura (from Casterton) in 1989, I couldn’t believe there was no footy and netball played together on the weekend,” she said.
“Where I grew up, on the outskirts of Melbourne, we’d always play at the one spot together. And most of country Victoria back then had footy and netball played at the same ground, on the same day.
“I saw there was a (Mildura Netball Association) midweek night comp when I arrived here. So I started sussing out people at the footy who I knew from night comp, which was quite strong, and we had unofficial games in 1990 where we borrowed some posts and played on the grass courts.
“So when South Mildura played Imps in the footy, we’d organise an informal game of netball the same day.
“And then we made contact at Robinvale with the Healys, and games would happen there. And it grew with other clubs.”
She said there was only one grade of netball played in the early years, when Imperials were the dominant side.
In fact, Imps won the first six flags (1991-96), which was emulated by Wentworth (1997-2002).
A common denominator in the success of both teams was the presence of star player Trish Wilson, who had switched clubs in the mid-’90s.
Since then, the flag-winning Imperials team from a decade ago have been rated among the best.
But, as Horkings points out, the big difference between all the champion teams that came before Edwards’ Roos, is that none of them had a run of consecutive wins as long as the Wenty of today.
No one definitively knows the longest winning streak on record, because record-keeping has been poor.
But this anecdotal information is coming from a person who kept the records for the first decade, before handing them on to other Sunraysia league officials.
“The Imps team of the early ’90s was very strong and then their best player (Wilson) went to Wentworth, which led to their success,” Horkings said.
“But I don’t think either of these teams won every game, every year.”
She is still an observer of SFNL A Grade games these days.
So, just where does the two-time defending champion Roos rate in her book?
“Wentworth is just so dominant, with Amanda up one end in attack, Courtney (Wakefield) leading the way in defence and Christie (Becker) at wing defence, which is an absolute luxury for the team,” she said.
“They have so much depth. I don’t think the successful Imps and Wentworth teams, as good as they were in the 1990s, are as good as this Wentworth team.”
There you have it. The Roos are the GOAT in the eyes of someone who has played against the best of the best in the 1990s, and then seen the cream of the crop since then.
Other GOATs
The Sunraysia Daily bunker was buzzing this week with talk about this region’s best ever overall sporting team and individual performers.
Photographer Ben Gross, who has covered local sport for the past 15 years, says the Wenty Roos’ A Grade netball starting seven are the best team he’s seen in any sport in Sunraysia.
Another colleague, Allan Murphy, who has clocked up 37 years of service at Sunraysia Daily, rates the Imperials team of the late ’80s and early ’90s (when they won eight flags in a decade) as the best footy side he’s ever seen.
Sports reporter Mitch Rodd puts the Robinvale 2010 premiership-winning team as the most dominant footy side he has seen since he started at the paper around that time.
Individually, the likes of golfer Greg Rhodes, who has achieved multiple international and national senior tournament success, former three-time world champion Jason Crump and fellow speedway king Leigh Adams, a 10-time Australian champion, are at the pointy end of the GOAT conversation.
And then, of course, there’s 1956 Olympic bronze medallist Kevin Hogarth.
It’s a great bar-room conversation on who’s the best of the best, team-wise and individually.
But it’s safe to say that Sunraysia has produced many fine sporting champions.
Bowing out
There’s one extra piece of news to report, but this time it’s about me.
I’m finishing up at Sunraysia Daily next week due to health reasons.
I came back to the paper in March, following several months off work to recover from long COVID.
But unfortunately some of the symptoms have returned, putting an end to my reporting days here.
Working as a journalist is a great privilege. I’ve never lost sight of that.
I’ve met so many wonderful people in my time here over the past several years.
I wish you all a happy and healthy future.
