THE Wimmera Netball Association will field a senior representative team at the Netball Victoria Association Championships in June.
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With Bellarine Football Netball League unable to send netball sides for interleague in May it looked as though senior Wimmera netballers would miss out on representing their association in 2018.
Representative coordinator Gayle Leith said the association was excited to send a team to the finals day of the championships.
“We’ve worked so hard to get the open team up and running again so we wanted to make sure there was still an opportunity for them to go away,” she said.
“We’ve got nearly enough for a team at this point and we’re just waiting for a couple more players to confirm.
“Hopefully we’ll be training next week.”
The association discussed the option of fielding a team at the championships if enough players showed interest at its most recent meeting.
A decision was made on Friday that there was sufficient interest to put together a squad.
Mrs Leith said it was important to provide a representative opportunity for the association’s senior players as well as its juniors.
“We don’t want everything to be just about our juniors because we have some really talented senior netballers as well,” she said.
“It’s also a pathway for those talented juniors that stay in the region.
“Some of the juniors that were in the 17 and under squad in 2017, and are too old this season, have already put their names forward.”
She said representative netball was a great way to build relationships with players from different teams.
“We’re lucky that all our teams, whether they are senior or open, really gel well together,” she said.
“The girls really enjoy getting together in order to play with different people from other clubs.”
The finals day for the Association Championships will be played on June 17 in Melbourne.
Mrs Leith said it had been a number of years since the association had sent an open team to the championships.
“I think it would have been four or five years since we’ve sent a team,” she said.
Junior association squads will play at the Golden City tournament in Bendigo on May 6 and the Northern Zone championships on May 20.
