OUYEN UNITED
COACH: Kyra Nathan.
2023 SEASON: Preliminary final.
FIRST MONTH: Bye, South Mildura (H), Mildura (A), Wentworth (H).
ARRIVALS: Nil.
DEPARTURES: Maggie Smith.
PERENNIAL contenders Ouyen United are backing themselves to be in the finals mix again this season.
Kyra Nathan’s squad is full of versatile stars who can play a number of different roles, providing flexibility for the incoming rolling substitute rule.
The majority of the A and B Grade squad remains in place outside of rising star shooter Maggie Smith, who will board at Ballarat’s Clarendon College following selection in the Netball Victoria Talent Academy.
After winning the 2019 title and falling short in a one-goal thriller against Wentworth two years ago, Ouyen United were knocked out by Mildura in last year’s entertaining preliminary final by four goals.
“We always want to be a part of finals, last year watching the grand final from the sidelines was hard as we’re always up there, but we obviously fell short this time,” Nathan said.
“We’ve lost Maggie who has headed to Ballarat and is hopefully destined for bigger things which we’re really excited about.
“We can really only play with who we’ve got here so we’ll play with some different formations, and we see it as a great opportunity for some of our B Grade girls and other juniors to step up as well.
“We’ll have the staple team from last year and hopefully we can build on that further by promoting from within.”
Nathan said having other players pushing for positions from beneath will be of huge benefit for the side.
“I think the subs will play to our strengths as we’re quite a versatile team, most of our players can feature in three different positions.
“For me, it will be about being pro-active with what we need and making sure we have our key match-ups right, while also reacting to what the opposition are doing.
“I think it’s exciting and it also exposes more players into the game, so maybe you might need a bigger bench to accommodate for it.”
