NETBALL
Junior netball has long been associated with Saturday mornings and a flurry of action.
However, in recent years, the sport has experienced a noticeable drop in participation in Morwell at an association level with the rise of football-netball clubs and a dwindling population.
For the first time since its inception, the Morwell Netball Association has been unable to run a Saturday competition due to a lack of teams and volunteers.
Jenny Bailey and the Morwell Netball Association were determined to keep junior participation afloat in the region and spawned the idea for a new competition.
Launched last year and now underway for 2018, the new Tuesday night competition at the Morwell Leisure Centre caters for budding netballers with busy families.
“We’ve had to look at other avenues to get kids to play,” Bailey said.
“Families are very time poor … usually they’re juggling multiple kids and multiple sports, and we found that Saturdays were just too hard and numbers started to dwindle.”
“And the ones that weren’t good enough or needed another year to perfect their skills, they didn’t have anywhere to go.
“This year we haven’t got enough teams for under 9 and under 11 competitions, so I called a meeting and offered Tuesday nights and we started it up … last week was the first one for this year and it was so good.”
The Tuesday night competition is run under modified rules with supervision, team rotations and shortened court time.
“The atmosphere last week was just fantastic, it really was,” Bailey said.
“My main focus is to have these children playing. I don’t want to see netball suddenly disappear from Morwell.”
Linda Perkins, who has been involved with netball for more than 50 years, said Bailey’s work to ensure the future of junior netball in the region was imperative.
“This is so, so important,” Perkins said.
“Tuesday nights at the Morwell Leisure Centre are filled with many young, happy netballers … and the competition also provides a platform for umpire development.
“Players wanting to have a go at umpiring are picking up the whistle and getting some important mentoring and feedback as well as playing within teams.”
For more information or to get involved with Tuesday night netball at the Morwell Leisure Centre, phone Jenny Bailey on 0427 671 864.
