Horsham Saints’ product Maggie Caris has been named in the Victoria State Netball team for a third straight year.
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Sacha McDonald – who played for Edenhope-Apsley before moving to the Peninsula Waves in the Victorian Netball League last season – also made the under-19 state team.
Caris’ Horsham Saints’ teammate Lavinia Fox and Harrow-Balmoral’s Ella Rees were also vying for state selection. Fox and Rees made it into the penultimate squads, but unfortunately did not make the final 12-player teams.
Caris said she was looking forward to representing Victoria once again.
“It’s a great opportunity and I can’t wait to get stuck into training,” she said.
“It’s been a long process of selection. I was lucky enough to be in the team last year, so I was already in the squad. We’ve been training over the last few weeks and the team got picked from there.”
Caris said she felt comfortable after playing in the team the last several years.
“I’ve made a few mates from doing it over the last few years,” she said.
“It’s good this year, there’s a fair few country girls named in the team as well, it’s not just all metro. There’s obviously still a fair few girls from Melbourne but it’s nice to have people from the country as well.
“There’s a few girls from Ballarat that I go to school with as well so that’s really good.”
Caris also faces the task of juggling the state selection and a promising netball career with her other athletic endeavours. Caris was recently named in the AFLW academy for 2019.
But she said both the state netball team and the academy are happy to accommodate her playing in both.
“I hope it’s not (difficult). I hope they don’t clash at all,” she said. “I’ve spoken to the coaches and they’re happy to co-ordinate with me to make sure it doesn’t happen too much.
“If it happens, I’m hoping that we will be able to work around it with training, and changing things if we need to.”
Caris and Lavinia Fox have also signed with the Melbourne University Lightning in the Victorian Netball League for next season. They were both hopeful of getting back to play some games for the Horsham Saints next year as well.
Caris said she hoped to keep improving her netball.
“I’ve learnt a lot over the last few years and hopefully that will continue this year,” she said.
“I guess I’ve got a bit of experience playing but it’s still pretty awesome. The nerves are still definitely there when we play.”
