IMPERIALS’ A grade netball team has been stuck in a kind of no man’s land the past two seasons with seventh-place finishes which showed the core talent was there but not quite enough to push for a finals berth.
But coach Ali Walker believes that will change in 2025 as the team in green goes back to the future with the return of 2023 A grade best and fairest Meg MacManus and her older sister Maddy.
“Meg is back home from London which is a big plus into the side and her older sister Maddy who has been at the club forever is back too after having a couple of years off,” Walker said.
“Everyone knows Meg is a great defender, but we’ve also been trying her forward to mix things up with some extra height and defence there.
“Maddy has been training really well. Her leadership has been evident.
“She’s a good talker on the court and has a good netball brain.
“She also provides a calming influence on the younger players, helps settle the team and get some positive vibes going.
“My goal is reaching the finals. We haven’t named the team or had a good talk about that yet but if you can make finals anything can happen from there.”
The quest to return to finals action started back in November and has steadily been gaining momentum.
“We haven’t announced our teams,” Walker said.
“We have picked A and B and C and C res squads. We are slowly getting to what our teams are going to look like.
“We had a practice game against Irymple last weekend and it looked pretty good.
“I feel like we were level on the day, and they were a finals team last year.
“It was good to have a run and get a bit of game play under our belt as it feels like a long time since we have been on the court.
“On-court performance is obviously important but so are actions off the court.
“I’ve been trying to get the players to get around the (club’s) culture and talking well about the club and each other on and off the court as the first thing and then the basics when we get on the court.”
