THE bush is renowned for producing some of Australia’s greatest-ever sportsmen and women.
“Rocket” Rod Laver learnt how to play tennis in Rockhampton, Cathy Freeman’s celebrated athletics career began in Mackay and Sir Donald Bradman famously sharpened his batting skills with a piece of wood and golf ball against a water tank at his childhood home in Bowral.
While Sunraysia’s best-ever sporting champions aren’t quite of that trio’s iconic stature, we have certainly been blessed with many greats including Dot Jenkinson (bowls), Deserie Wakefield (shooting), Kevin Hogarth (boxing), Jason Crump (Speedway) and top-level footballers Dale Weightman and John James.
The other thing that country areas are good at breeding (besides big mozzies, most recently) is multi-sport stars.
This is something I’ve been thinking about since we switched from winter to summer sport mode last month.
It came into sharper focus last weekend when I was covering the Mildura Heat men’s and women’s CBL games at the Hothouse.
It was a parade of high-quality netball and football talent showing their wares as basketballers in the predominantly under-23 line-ups.
First-up, the Heat’s young guns included Alannah Morello, Ally Leng and Jorja Delcastegne – all of whom are stars in the SFNL A Grade netball ranks.
They are lightning-quick on their feet, pass the ball with great authority and shoot very well.
Netball’s skillset clearly helps them on the basketball court, and the trio are fine exponents of both.
Later in the night, the young man who really caught the eye was Archer Hammond.
Fresh off winning the SFNL Under 18 best-and-fairest football award after dominating in premiership team Irymple, Hammond is now showing what a rising star he is on the basketball court.
He’s got good size, standing at 6’1, but he also has tremendous athletic ability.
Like any class athlete, he seems to have extra time with ball in hand and knows how to legally out-body his opponents in a tough contest.
This is where his football skills have benefited him on the basketball court. And vice-versa, because his marking skills, distribution and ability to find space on the footy field have been boosted by playing basketball.
It led me to ponder on the drive home from the Hothouse, just who are this region’s best all-round sportsmen and women?
First thing I did was come up with criteria that narrowed it down to those living locally and currently competing in at least one sport, but who have also starred in other sports during their career.
I did a “greatest ever” list of local sports satrs earlier this year, so I wanted to now come up with one that recognises the many talents of the present-day stars.
I tossed the idea around the newsroom this week and most of us felt this had to be the start of a conversation because we’d inevitably miss some names.
Courtney v Amanda
My top women’s pick was a close-run race between Courtney Wakefield (football, netball) and Amanda Edwards (nee Hederics, netball, basketball).
Wakefield, who lives near Pooncarie with her husband and two children, has been starring for Richmond in the AFLW this season.
This week she was named in the All-Australian squad.
During this year she played a pivotal role in helping Wentworth Roos’ SFNL A Grade team towards a premiership.
The big star in the Roos’ team, though, is Edwards.
She didn’t win the Horkings Medal in 2022, but many rate her as the supreme netballer in the region.
Turning the clock back a few years, Edwards, who works locally as a dental nurse, was also a gun in the Mildura Heat women’s Big V basketball team, starring alongside good mate Vanessa Power.
In the battle of the mid-30 somethings, I almost gave Amanda the nod at top spot because of her longevity in both sports, but ultimately I went with Courtney because of her sensational 2022 in both netball and footy.
There’s a familiar theme in the rest of my top 5 list, because they are all netballers-cum-basketballers (or they may argue the other way around).
After moving to Mildura in 2013, the evergreen Sharon Watson played for the Heat basketball team and has been leading the Mildura Demons as a co-coach and rock-solid GK in the SFNL A Grade competition.
All this while she was knocking on the door of 50 years of age this year.
Another great netballer/basketballer is Demalza Henry, who is in her early 40s.
She’s not long put the cue in the rack of her 300-plus game netball career with South Mildura and Robinvale, but she was a key member of the Heat’s run to the Big V Division 1 finals this year.
I love how she still leaves nothing on the floor. There was talk she may retire next year, but I reckon there’s no way she’ll want to finish on the crushing note of how the Heat lost in week one of the finals.
Demalza was in tears moments after full-time. I’m tipping we haven’t seen the last of her in a Heat singlet.
Even though my next pick is only 17, Alannah Morello is an absolute class act at both netball and basketball.
In fact, she was named the best young player in the statewide Big V Division 1 women’s competition this year.
Rhodes to glory
It’s hard to go past Greg Rhodes as the best local all-round sportsman.
At 63, he’s the best senior amateur golfer in Australia and is still involved in the SFNL as an umpire.
He was also a champion footballer. In 1980, he played in the VFL for Richmond in their reserves team.
He’s also been good at volleyball and has competed in triathlons.
But it’s primarily his golf record that puts him atop the podium.
In fact, it’s a record so good that Greg himself has lost count of the number of wins he’s had.
I’m grouping together the next band of top all-rounders on my list.
Shannon Bowen (cricket, table tennis, football), the ageless Wayne Carmichael (table tennis, cricket, football), Wade Hancock (football, cricket), Braidyn Turner (football, cricket) and Chris Williams (cricket, soccer) are among the best active all-round sportsmen in the region.
This completes my lists. It’s now over to you to put forward your picks. We’ll run a “best of” next week.
Email: mtaylor@sunraysiadaily.com.au
