Across the King’s Birthday long weekend, two Broken Hill Netball Association (BHNA) representative teams – Under-13s and Under-17s – travelled to Netball SA Stadium in Adelaide for the SA Country Championships, with the Under-13s making it all the way to the semi-finals –the first time in a long time a BHNA team in this division has qualified for finals at the event.
The team finished with a 5-5 record through the 10-game Pool C division to finish third to qualify for a semi-final meeting with eventual winners, Adelaide Plains, falling 26-13.
The Under-13s were also runners-up at the Mid Hills Netball Carnival two weeks ago.
At the SA Country Championships, the Under-17s were unfortunately down two players as a result of injuries after the first game of the weekend, competing with five or six players for the majority of the carnival and finishing with a 0-11 record in Pool B.
BHNA President, Tori McManus told us, “I have the biggest appreciation for our girls because whether they were in the Under-17s or the Under-13s, they gave their absolute heart and soul into each and every game.
“For a team from little old Broken Hill to make it into the semi-final round of a carnival like SA Country Champs is a huge deal for Broken Hill Netball Association. It probably wasn’t even that much of a surprise because our Under-13s girls are fantastic.
“They made it into the finals for Mid Hills [Netball Carnival] a couple of weeks ago, so we had expectations, but obviously we weren’t expecting it because it [SA Country Champs] is such a high-level carnival with so many other different teams participating. It wasn’t an expectation, but it was very, very impressive to say the least.”
BHNA Representative Coordinator and Under-13s Coach, Jodi Young, echoed the sentiments.
“It’s the first time in a long time that that’s happened, that we’ve gotten that far and that is down to the training and the persistence, and they just always showed up. They were always complaining that they were tired, but they just kept going,” she said.
“This is a massive deal for the Broken Hill netball community. I’m hoping that this is just the start of something new for Broken Hill, but this just shows that Broken Hill actually can be on the radar, a team to watch out for. It’s not just a small town, it actually can go somewhere in netball, so I’m hoping this is the start of something new.”
