Namoi Netball Club excels at Tamworth’s Koori Gala Day

Namoi Netball Club have their eyes set on the 2025 Koori Netball Tournament that will be held in Charlestown in October, and the teams’ preparations ramped up on Sunday when they travelled to Tamworth for their first Koori Gala Day of the year.

The club arrived in Tamworth with five teams, one of which were the undefeated champions of their division as the open women’s team went through the day with eight wins from as many matches.

They also had an open mixed team, two under-15s mixed teams and an under-12s girls’ team in action across the day.

Namoi Netball Club committee member and open women’s team player Molly Welsh told The Courier that it was an enjoyable day and their teams are enjoying being back out on the court together.

“We had five teams go over to Tamworth and we came away with the win and undefeated in the women’s division,” Welsh said.

“A couple of reasons we like to go to these carnivals is to encourage our younger gen to get in, have a go, but most of all have fun.

“They build self-confidence, it’s good for their physical and mental health, they develop a better understanding on how to work as a team, plus it’s always good to see new faces and make new connections. And if they walk away with something that they’ve learnt or can grow from, that makes it so much more worthwhile.

“There won’t be a Coona gala day this year, which we were hoping to go to, but we are going over to Dubbo for theirs this weekend.

“Our club is going really good. It was good to finally have our first competition games of the year on Sunday, and we’re gearing up for the big one now. The wheels are in motion for later in the year in Charlestown.

“It was good to come away with a win, and we had some new players as well which was great.

“The new mixed open team was a really good experience. It consisted of some mums who haven’t played for 10 or so years and some men that wanted to get in their and have a go.

“It was some social fun for them, but us opens love to get in there and have a good go, and we have fun doing it.

“We always want to come away with the win, and we were blessed to do that because there was some tough competition.”

The club’s open women’s team, Namoi Mii Mii Memorial, had the bye in round one on Sunday and kicked off the day with a dominant win as they downed Nura Storm 24-3 in round two.

They then prevailed 17-13 against Goodooga Magpies, 14-8 against Serpent Warriors and 14-7 against Tamworth Bamba Miyays to complete a sweep of the other four teams in the division.

They were able to rest and regroup with the round six bye, and they came out on fire again with three more victories as they defeated Nura Storm 23-4, Goodooga Magpies 12-10 and the Serpent Warriors 14-10.

That saw them head into the 10th and final round playing to remain undefeated, and they won their toughest game of the gala day as they edged out Tamworth Bamba Miyays 11-10.

The Namoi Queen Bees had a win and a draw in the under-12s division, Namoi Waruu were third in the under-13-15 division after winning three of their six games, Namoi Songbirds were without a win in the under-13-15 division but had plenty of fun and learned some valuable lessons, and the Namoi Nobby’s Nobles went down in their five games but relished playing in their first carnival as a team.

Namoi Netball Club’s players are now looking forward to travelling to Dubbo for another gala day this Sunday after many of them also play their final-round games in the Narrabri Netball Association competitions on Saturday.