MILDURA’S Aalen Davis will be representing Australia later this year, when the Australian under 20’s men’s netball team takes on New Zealand.
The 18-year-old said he couldn’t wait to take on New Zealand’s best when the two teams met.
“I am expecting (the game) to be crazy,” he said.
“They are going to be big guys as New Zealand (men’s) netball is starting to become popular there too, so I’m expecting it to be a good competition.”
It will be the first time Davis has represented Australia after playing for South Australia the last few years.
Growing up in Mildura, Davis said he began playing mixed netball at Lifestyle Plus when he was in year 9 before being approached the following year by a South Australian state player.
“(He) came up to me and told me ‘hey you should try out’, so I was like ‘sure why not,” he said.
Following the trials, which weren’t held until the end of the following year due to COVID-19, Davis was selected into the SA Under 17’s team and then the following year into the SA 23s team.
He said during this time he lived in Mildura but would travel to Adelaide to play.
“I travelled over every week with my parents, I didn’t have my licence, big shout out to them,” he said.
“It was an eight hour day, up and back on a Sunday and then I made the 23’s and I had my licence … I eventually made the move in February.”
Davis said he never expected to play netball at such a high level.
“Literally just coming from a country town, I wasn’t really expecting to go any further,” he said.
“I didn’t even know about state netball, just knew of mixed netball (in Mildura).”
Davis said he was surprised at how large the sport actually was in Australia.
“Mixed netball (in Mildura), yeah it’s cool, but when I went over there I didn’t realise just how everyone takes it, it is very serious and so much fun to be a part of,” he said.
“Especially going to nationals when all the other state’s teams were there, it was just huge.
“The presentation night, just fitting every single team in from every state was just massive, there were so many people.”
Further information on AMMNA competitions will be released in the coming months.
