The Victorian side made it through the week-long championships undefeated before overcoming South Australia 31-26 in the gold medal match.

McDonald said the win was made sweeter because of her close relationships with her teammates.

“I’ve played at a few nationals now but my very first one was in Adelaide as part of the under-12s squad,” she said.

“To be back there with a lot of the girls I’ve continued to play with since then was so special.

“We get along so well – to be able to win with players you play well with on court and are best mates with off it makes it all 10-times better.”

Victoria was well positioned to take out the gold medal match when it took an 18-9 lead into half time.

South Australia made the side work for its win but could only close the margin to five goals by the final whistle.

“We were pretty much up from the start so we had control of the game but we certainly didn’t win the contest in the first quarter,” McDonald said.“The match was definitely tough – we knew that they had a lot of depth and a lot of talented girls in their team.  It wasn’t easy by any means but I think we were really smart with the netball we played and it didn’t come from one player on the team, it came from everyone.”

McDonald said that she had had a difficult week but was still happy with how she had performed.

“It was a bit of a tough week but in the end everyone’s attention is directed towards the team and I couldn’t be happier,” she said. “It was fairy tale ending really.”

She said the team had talked a lot about its off-court chemistry as an advantage as it prepared for the championships.

“It was something we spoke about plenty of times in the months before we went away and during the week,” she said.

“We had so much belief that we would do it for each other and nobody had a self-centred approach to the game.

“We simply walked out there to enjoy the game and it was just another netball match with our best mates.”

McDonald’s focus will now be on her Victorian Fury commitments as a pathway player in the Australian Netball League and the stat of the Victorian Netball League season.

Horsham’s Maggie Caris was also in action at the championships as part of the 17 and under team.

Her team won four of its seven preliminary matches and drew two before defeating Queensland in the semi-final.

A 26-25 loss in the gold medal match saw the team return with silver medals.