By David Nagel
The brightest young netball talent in SEFNL has been representing the league with distinction at Association Junior Tournaments held over the last two months.
Tournaments held at the Mountain District, Casey, and Waverley Districts Netball Associations culminated over the last fortnight with the playing of the Association Championships.
SEFNL had winning teams, grand finalists and semi-final participants at each tournament over four grades, with coaches Katrina Foster (13U), Roger Palmer (15U Reserve), Leanne Walford (15U Open) and Head Coach Janine Kilmartin (17U) giving the girls a great education along the way.
“We didn’t want to over commit the players with training, they already have busy schedules, so we trained on four Friday nights for the four tournaments we played in,” Kilmartin said.
“Considering we were playing against teams that train and play together on a weekly basis, I think it was an outstanding achievement to have a semi-finalist or grand finalist at every tournament we played in.
“The girls are classy and smart players and it was really impressive how they came together as one to represent SEFNL with real pride.”
Kilmartin said there were many highlights along the journey.
“To see the girls learn something new at training and then implement that on game day was probably the highlight,” she said.
“That and seeing the smiles on their faces when they made it through to finals. To see them grow as players and believe in themselves, that was the highlight from a coaching point of view and made it all worthwhile in the end.”
The head coach said the girls would take a lot away from the experience.
“It’s not always purely about the netball, it’s about building friendships and having a nice balance in your life,” Kilmartin said.
“Some of these girls will remain friends for many years to come, going through Zone Academy’s and working up to the elite level together. The talent identification has begun for a lot of these girls and I wish them well as they work their way through this process.”
Kilmartin wanted to thank a few people for the efforts.
“Obviously the players, they were fantastic, but a special thank you goes to the coaches who dedicated their time and shared their knowledge with the girls and were always communicating before tournaments to make sure we were well represented,” Kilmartin said.
“I’d also like to thank the parents and Sam Downie from SEFNL for organising things from a league point of view.”
The representative teams will be recognised further at the SEFNL Presentation Night to be held on
Monday 10 September.
Last Modified on 31/05/2018 14:57