Court action

Netball

By CAPT Lynne Oldfield

An attacker from Far North Queensland in action on centre court.

Photo by ABPH Gavin Hainsworth

More than 200 netballers converged on HMAS Cerberus in August for the ADF Netball Association’s women’s, mixed and men’s titles.

In addition to teams representing Victoria, New South Wales, South East Queensland, North Queensland, Canberra and the Northern Territory, the New Zealand Defence Force’s women’s team arrived to take on the ADF representative team selected at the previous year’s carnival. The Kiwis were also invited to participate in the women’s competition.

The carnival opened with a bang with a large crowd of netballers, guests and locals treated to a match between the ADF and NZDF women’s teams.

The Kiwis were keen to even the score from the ADF’s extremely successful inaugural tour of New Zealand in 1998. The New Zealand women were impressive from the first glance appearing much taller and physically stronger than our players.

Their team consisted of several players from the 1998 clash.

From the first whistle blow the Kiwi’s superior ball skills, court speed and agility in the air placed extraordinary pressure on our inexperienced players.

They came out playing hard and achieved a commanding lead before the ADF side had a chance to find their rhythm. It was a pattern the NZ women were to repeat in every game of the carnival.

The ADF team played the full game with terrific spirit however and never gave in to the unrelenting pressure applied by the dominant Kiwis.

While the game was one sided, with the Kiwis winning convincingly, the spectators and official guests were impressed by the level of skill and commitment displayed by both teams.

The tone was set for the remainder of the week with each state keen for an opportunity to take on the Liwis during the National Carnival.

The South East Queensland squad arrived at HMAS Cerberus keen to follow up their clean sweep of last year’s carnival.

Unfortunately, their squad was severely depleted because of local units’ commitments to current deployments and exercises. To their credit, they managed to take out the mixed title by defeating New South Wales, 48 - 36 in the grand final.

NSW were undeniably the underdogs going into the final. They fought bravely until half time when the strength, height and accuracy of the SEQLD attack proved too much for the desperate NSW defenders.

NSW was the most successful state at this year’s carnival. All three teams won their way into the grand final playoffs.

The NSW women’s team was extremely confident, competitive and focussed on taking out the 2003 title, but they were to meet an equally hungry home team from Victoria in the final.

Both teams had won their earlier matches convincingly. Vic had beaten NSW in the rounds but NSW were more impressive against the invincible Kiwis. Both teams went into the final confident of victory.

The game was a battle of tight defence over all court positions with pressure applied to the goalers of both teams. The Vic goalers eventually settled into their routine enabling the Vics to achieve a 20 - 11 victory.

After many years of finishing runners up, this was the Vic women’s first taste of the premiership cup.

As always, the combination of speed and physical clashes ensured the men’s competition was an exciting spectacle.

NSW had a number of experienced players and a strong interchange.

ACT and NT combined to form a formidable opponent considering they had no opportunity to develop team cohesion. NSWs experience and teamwork saw them over the line with a convincing 38 - 21 victory.

Congratulations to the winning teams and those voted Most Valuable Player:

• Women - PTE Megan Walker, NQLD
  
• Men - LSPT Nick Blencowe, NSW tied with veteran LAC Dean Bourke, NQLD
  
• Mixed - AC Preben Kohler, ACT/NT.

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