NETBALL
After months of anticipation the Morwell Football Netball Club finally ran out onto the newly refurbished netball courts at Morwell Recreation Reserve for the first time on Saturday.
Morwell netball coordinator and A grade player Claire Allison said the new courts were a long time coming and a welcome boost for the entire club.
“We found out at the start of the 2017 season that we had the funding to get the new courts, but it wasn’t until December that we saw things happening,” Allison said.
“Construction started at the end of January and everything has just happened so quickly, it’s amazing.”
The court upgrades at Morwell Recreation Reserve form part of the $9 million redevelopment co-funded by the state and federal governments.
The refurbishments include two new courts plus lighting, player boxes and a grandstand for spectators.
It also includes improvements to the Keegan Street Reserve cricket field and the construction of a multi-use synthetic playing surface.
While works on the player amenities and grandstand are still underway, Allison said the club was thrilled to have a new, working home base it could be proud of.
“It’s just so exciting … all the officials, the committee and even the footballers are so happy it’s coming along and everyone is thrilled that we finally get decent courts that are ours,” Allison said.
“We’ve now got two brand new courts after years of having one poorly maintained one, so it’s all a bit surreal.”
The cracked old court required weekly weeding.
“We’ve trained at more than four different venues throughout the season … at Churchill, Glengarry, Morwell Leisure [Centre] and Morwell Park,” Allison said.
“In a couple of weeks time we’ll be able to have all the netball sides together when the lights are up and it’s going to make life so much easier for coaches and officials.”
The Tigers christened their new blue courts with a 57-36 win over Sale in the A grade competition and Allison said all the club’s round four fixtures were backed by some extra special enthusiasm.
“Our under-17’s won as well and it would have been good to get some more wins but there was definitely more in it for the club … everyone was really excited and a lot of girls commented and said it doesn’t feel like ours yet,” she said.
“We used to have old leaking, mouldy shipping containers that we used as change rooms.
“We’ve got two shipping containers provided by council for the time being, and while they’re still shipping containers, they’re so much better quality.
“It’s so silly to walk into a shipping container and say ‘this is nice’, but it’s a massive difference and it’s all just so exciting for the club.”
The federal government contributed $5 million to the upgrades at Morwell Recreation Reserve and said the club would soon have “one of the best netball facilities of all the football leagues”.
“The additional lighting and player boxes will improve facilities for training and hopefully help the club to retain its current group of netballers and attract more players to the game in future,” member for Gippsland Darren Chester said.
The new pavilion and player amenities are expected to be finished by the end of the 2018 season.
