Millewa netball partners face grand final tussle

WHEN newlyweds Maddison and Georgina Maher wake up today, they’ll have a lazy breakfast, walk their dogs Milk and Smooch and enjoy the sunshine just like the rest of Sunraysia.

Then it will be game faces on as they don their Gol Gol and Werrimull kits respectively, and take the court to battle it out on opposing teams in the A Reserve Millewa Netball Association grand final.

The couple, who were married just five months ago, say it dawned on them about halfway through the season that their two teams may actually compete against each other for the flag.

“I wasn’t actually going to play netball at the start of the year,” Georgina said.

“I play footy too, so if our footy team had’ve gotten into the grand final I wouldn’t have been able to play netball, so I wasn’t too worried about it.

“I think it got real towards the middle of the season, as our teams progressed we started realising there’s a chance we’d go up against each other in the finals.”

While the women, who play wing defence and centre, aren’t likely to be directly on each other during the game, they say a healthy dose of competition is definitely evident, with a fair bit of “smack talk” flying between them.

“At home, we give each other a fair bit of crap, it’s a bit of a joke really — it’s all in good fun though,” Maddison said.

“Your loyalty is a bit torn, because obviously you want your own team to win, but you want your wife to win too.

“When it comes down to it, I think we’ll be happy either way.

“We’ll both be going out there and giving it our absolute best shot and celebrating the season with our teammates regardless of the outcome.”