By Mikayla van Loon
Netball players from across the Yarra Ranges have been selected to trial for Netball Victoria’s talent identification academy in 2023.
Among those are three Mount Evelyn Netball Club under 15 players Annie Brown, Clementine Nicholas and Ava Upton.
Under 15s coach Rebecca Humphris said this was an incredible opportunity for the girls to potentially be seen by Victorian Netball League clubs.
“We’d love to see them reach their potential. It’s a pretty tough environment, netball, with so many girls playing and participating in the sport, so to make it through and be ID’d at their age is a really good achievement for them,” she said.
Whether selected to progress further in the talent academy or not, Rebecca said the trial will give the three girls better connections within the netball world, should they wish to play at state level.
“It’ll give them exposure to some more experienced coaches and they’ll compete against kids that are just as talented as them in their own age group which is only going to be beneficial if this is something they want to pursue in the future,” she said.
Netball Victoria pathways manager Sarah Collett said getting back to identifying young talent after an interrupted two years has been great.
“We are excited by the young talent coming through the pathway and look forward to seeing them at the Talent Academy selections in November,” she said.
“Players will participate in an extended selection session with coaching from some of Victoria’s best pathway coaches. This selection will consist of both training and match play that will determine the final group of players for the 2023 program.”
Rebecca said each of the girls bring their own attributes to the game and as part of her coaching, each player must be competent in two thirds of the court, to ensure they are versatile.
Tenacious Clementine inspires her fellow players to want to get the ball; Annie is a “consistent player. She does her job and there’s no fuss about her”; and Ava is calm and coachable.
“They can all play anywhere really, because they are just talented enough to do that, but we’re really, really proud of them to be exceptional in their age but respectful to the game and everything about it whether it’s the opposition or the umpires.”
Clementine is a circle defender with an ability to run through the mid court, Annie’s a consistent midcourt player who can always be relied on in defence and Ava is very competent over both ends of the court.
“If they can just take the opportunity that’s offered to them, do their best but have fun and we just want to let them know that the whole Mount Evelyn community are really proud of them and excited to watch where their netball journey might go.”
