NETBALL
By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT
ALL levels of netball were on display at Traralgon’s Gippsland Regional Sports Stadium (GRISS) at the weekend, with Netball Victoria’s Gippsland Showcase catering to the wider regional sports community.
Beginning on Saturday, recent Suncorp Super Netball franchise Melbourne Mavericks travelled down to run a junior clinic with around 80 enthusiastic, young netball lovers before diving into an open two-hour training session.
Across both Saturday and Sunday, exhibition matches featured at GRISS from both VNL (Victorian Netball League) and state level with the likes of the Gippsland Stars, Casey Demons, Peninsula Waves, Victoria and South Australia state teams and New Zealand’s Waikato Bay of Plenty on display.
The headline of the second day of the showcase was local supporters getting their first look at the Gippsland Stars Championship team, who featured in practice matches against Waikato Bay of Plenty (NZ) and Peninsula Waves.
Netball Victoria’s From the Sidelines coaching workshop ran during the Mavericks open training session by experienced netball coach and former England national coach Sue Hawkins, and was well represented by local, thriving and up-and-coming Gippsland coaches seeking further knowledge.
Melbourne Mavericks star centre Molly Jovic spoke of the amazing opportunity for the recent start-up club to forge a relationship with the local region, as well as offer a great preseason trip for squad.
“It’s been great to head down (here) to Gippsland and mingle with the community – anytime we can get away with our group is great bonding for the team,” she said.
“We’re in the second year of our club, so (it’s) pretty important to fill a base of members and that comes from the community, seeing netballers come up through the grassroots is really important to us as an elite netball club… it’s just about giving back a bit.”
Melbourne Mavericks Head Coach, Tracey Neville relished the chance to showcase her team to regional fans.
“It’s been really enjoyable, I think this is a great opportunity for the Mavericks to go out into regional Victoria and really integrate and engage with the wider community, and they’ve been so welcoming to us,” she said.
“The regional areas are really important for us, I think engagement of fans has been really a key builder for us over the last two seasons and for them to start to get little pods of the Mavericks here, people to look up to as role models and see the team. I think that’s really important with the young girls here is that they get to see where they’re going to be inspiring to as netballers and I think that any weekend that has lots of netball, lots of fun is a great weekend.”
That was one of the central purposes of the showcase, being to enhance young, local netballers understanding of the possibilities that can be had at the top of the sport by putting it right in front of them.
One for them to look to would have to be former Moe netballer Montana Holmes, who is a current training partner with Melbourne Mavericks and current VNL Championship player for City West Falcons.
That also lends to the fantastic avenues Gippsland Stars now offers for junior players, with their 17 & Under and 19 & Under sides featuring prominently this year.
Both Jovic and Neville loved being able to see the lower ranks of netball that featured throughout the weekend, and watch the thriving young players that will grow in years to come.
Neville is a former England national team player and head coach who has won Commonwealth Games bronze and gold medals, and is the sister of former English footballers Gary and Phil Neville.
Following their training, the Super Netball side ventured to neighbouring Traralgon facility GRAC (Gippsland Regional Aquatic Centre) for gym work and recovery before heading back to the city.
Netball Victoria is holding more regional events like this in the future with Melbourne Vixens travelling to Ballarat and Bendigo in the coming weeks, but Netball Victoria Eastern Region Development Manager, Judi Buhagiar said the Mavericks were always set on Gippsland.
“The Mavericks were really keen to come down here… it’s really important for us at Netball Victoria to expose netball as much as we can,” she said.
“It worked quite well together I felt… our core business is netball and the growth of netball, if you’re going to help us grow business and grow participation it doesn’t matter what colour uniform you wear.”
Talking about Gippsland Stars in the second year of their existence, Netball Victoria couldn’t be prouder of the growth of the club who have expanded to four teams for 2025 from 17 & Under to Championship level.
“It’s such an exciting year for them, seeing their Championship team hit the court for the first time and I think they did extremely well… we also saw their 23 & Under team play, and they had a nervous start last year I suppose, but they went out there with so much confidence… to be able to see the difference was amazing,” Buhagiar said.
“They belong to Gippsland… they are a product of Gippsland and I think it’s really important for the community to get behind them (because) we really want them to get that interest and they’re doing a great job at it too.”
Netball Victoria is aiming to run more initiatives in the Gippsland region involving local leagues and associations in the coming months.
