Narrabri Netball Association takes on the state at Bankstown

Narrabri Netball Association travelled to Bankstown with three representative sides last week where they competed at the three-day Netball NSW Senior State Titles event across the long weekend.

Narrabri’s opens team played in opens division two and its under-15s and under-17s teams competed in division four of their respective age groups.

The under-15s team had the most success, winning five of its 14 matches to finish 10th on the 15-team division four ladder.

The under-17s team finished last on its 15-team ladder following a win and 13 losses, while the opens team finished 18th on its 19-team ladder after scoring a win and a draw in its 18 games.

The opens side featured seven debutantes including Cassidy Staines, Maddie Russell, Zoe Campbell and Bree Smith – who were all playing at their first opens tournament after representing Narrabri in younger age groups previously – and Sophie Browning and Steph and Rebecca Leahy – who were all playing at their first state tournament for Narrabri.

Only skipper Lauren Smart and teammate Liz Whiteley had lined up for Narrabri previously in a state opens tournament.

Smart told The Courier that she was pleased with the way the team came together at the state titles and said that the young side was already better for the experience and would improve in 2022.

Narrabri’s under-15s team competed alongside three players from East Ryde Netball Association across the long weekend.

Coach Tracey Tomlinson told The Courier that she was proud of her girls.

“We had an amazing weekend,” Tomlinson said.

“Due to injury we sourced players from East Ryde Netball Association and the three girls complimented our team nicely.

“We had five wins and at least three hard-fought losses that were well within our reach.

“On the whole it was a great weekend watching the girls improve both individually and as a team.

“One of my proudest coaching moments was a very narrow hard-fought loss to Mount Druitt.

“We were outplayed physically in the first half, the girls let their much bigger opponents beat them emotionally.

“At half-time we had a chat and the girls came out and played netball.

“To their credit they were able to put aside the first half and almost won the game.

“It was tied with only a couple of minutes left on the clock. We made a few judgement errors and Mount Druitt capitalised.

“We lost by two in the end.

“It was an amazing turn around, it actually bought tears to my eyes, I was so impressed.”

The under-15s side lost all four of its matches during day one on Saturday before it bounced back in style to win three of its five games during day two on Sunday. It beat Parkes District 19-4 to kick the day off before downing Lower Clarence 14-11 and Group 14 21-3 in its last two games of the day.

The side started day three with the narrow 13-11 loss against Mount Druitt before downing Leeton 16-7 and Inverell 18-12 in games two and three respectively. It then lost its final two matches which saw it finish 10th on the ladder.

The opens side lost all six of their games during day one on Saturday.

They went down 25-12 against Scone and District, 13-12 in a nail-biter against Nelson Bay, 27-6 against Singleton, 21-11 against Blue Mountains, 20-9 against Group 14 and 22-7 against Nambucca Valley.

Narrabri then lost back-to-back games 26-13 and 29-6 against Young and District and Goulburn and District respectively to start day two before they bounced back to score a 14-13 victory against Yass.

In its final four games on Sunday, Narrabri went down 27-7 against Lakeside, 28-8 against Bellingen, 22-13 against South Gungahlin and 18-8 against Kurri Kurri.

On the third and final day of the state titles on Monday, Narrabri lost 20-10 against Greta Lakes before it drew 16-all with Woolgoolga District.

It was then beaten 18-11 by Coonabarabran, 21-10 by Glen Innes and 20-9 by Tamworth in its final three games.

Narrabri’s under-17s team won its last match of the day on Saturday when it edged out Group 14 9-8 after losing its first four day one games. That would be the side’s only win at the tournament. It lost all four of its day two games then all five of its day three matches.