Two Narrabri cousins recently competed for the NSW Echidnas at the Australian Indigenous Schoolgirls Netball Tournament and were selected into the Australian Budgies Indigenous Netball team for their respective age groups.
Thirteen-year-old Dezi Magan-Jones played for the NSW Indigenous Schoolgirls Netball under-14s team and 11-year-old Adison Hartog-Smith lined up for the under-12s team at the national tournament which was contested at the Gold Coast.
The two Narrabri girls impressed which led to Dezi, the daughter of Mark and Penny Magan-Jones, being picked in the Budgies’ under-14s squad, and Adison, the daughter of Shane and Megan Hartog-Smith being selected into the Budgies’ under-12s squad.
This year’s tournament was quite different, as was the makeup of the NSW teams.
The tournament usually welcomes at least one team from each state in each age group, however, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent interstate travel/social distancing restrictions, only NSW, Queensland and Victoria competed across the five days.
The under-14s and under-12s teams played against one another, and in total teams played about 15 games each.
The Echidnas were scheduled to host trials back in July last year, however that was cancelled and players were selected based on previous performances for the NSW teams.
Given the latest travel restrictions between NSW and Queensland, NSW was unable to field any players from the greater Sydney area, which meant that the majority of the players travelled from country NSW to compete.
Adison and Dezi will now travel back to the Gold Coast in April, to compete at the International Netball Festival, and in July, to compete at the Gold Coast Games for the Budgies.
To order photos from this page click here
