IT’S a short turnaround from last year’s event, but another great opportunity beckons for two Sunraysia netball teams, who will travel to Bendigo for the state titles on the Labour Day long weekend.
Both the under 15 and 17s Sunraysia teams played at the Netball Victoria State Titles just six months ago, but due to a date change for the annual event, this year’s tournament is scheduled sooner than usual.
Sunraysia State Title officer Alana Mills said like last time, exposure for the girls, some of whom made it to Melbourne in October, would be valuable.
“There’s actually quite a few new ones coming in,” Mills said.
“A lot of our under 17s from last time were top age so we’ve lost them, but also there’s quite a few coming in as bottom agers in the under 15s.
“It’s very exciting to have quite a lot of new players around, who will get the opportunity to see what the state level is like.”
Mills said expectations for both squads would be different.
“It’s probably a little bit different of a focus compared to last year … obviously it’s preseason locally which means they’re probably not peaking like last time, which was at the end of the season,” she said.
“For our under 15s, they haven’t had a lot of opportunity whereas our 17s have, so we are expecting some better results from them.”
Although every game would pose a challenge, Mills said the girls would love to beat neighbouring regions Murray, Wimmera and North-Central.
“We’ll put a bit of focus on those games because we’d love to be able to say we’ve beaten the guys from the bush,” Mills said.
Fixtures are yet to be announced for the tournament, which is from March 9-11 in Bendigo.
