Interschool Netball Report
Boys Report
On Monday May 25th, Mildura CC was represented by a girls team and a boys team in the SSVS division intermediate (year 9-10) netball competition.
The boys faced a strong Coomealla team in the first round and despite their best efforts, suffered a first half mauling, trailing 19-0 at half time. Aisea was moved to GD, adding strength to the defence, and Clark's shift to GA improved our performance in the second half. Coomealla were shouting 'don't let them score!' so there was much celebration when River scored our first goal, and then Clark our second soon after. The second half was still conceded, but by the improved score of 2-10, giving a final score of 29-2.
A strong first half against Henderson saw MCC right in the match, trailing 6-3 at half time. Neil's focus and energy at C, combined with strong defence from Aisea (GD), Rhett (GK) and Declan & Noah (WD) provided us with plenty of opportunities, which River (GS) and Clark (GA) were able to exploit. A quick start to the second half had us only one point down at 5-6, before Henderson got on top and ran out 5-13 winners.
Our third match against Trinity had a strong beginning, but despite being so close, we were unable to convert any opportunities, trailing 5-0 at half time, before losing 17-0.
Our final match was against a much stronger Chaffey team, and after trailing 15-1 at half time, Aisea's move to WA injected strength and energy to our attacks, and we were able to score 3 more goals to eventually lose 28-4. David provided strength and speed throughout the game and the competition.
Many thanks to Tilesa for her excellent umpiring and coaching of the boys team, and also to Ms Patience for her coaching insights and assistance.
Although we lost all four matches, the boys all played as hard as they could, followed their game plans and can be proud of their performance against older and bigger opponents.
Congratulations to the boys and their coaches for their efforts.
Girls report
Across the day, the girls played four matches and consistently showed joy, positivity and encouragement towards one another in every game.
Our first match was against Irymple, who were a very strong and well-structured side. Early on, it became clear that we needed to adjust our game plan, as they exposed both our strengths and weaknesses around the court. Despite the challenge of going down 37–0, the girls continued to work hard, support one another and compete right until the final whistle.
The second match against Red Cliffs was quite interesting, as several positional changes improved our game tremendously. Lucy Hardy joined in at Centre, Bella moved into GD, Grace as GA, while Kasa and Anaise swapped positions at GS. These changes immediately lifted our energy and structure around the court. Communication improved, the ball moved with more confidence, and the defensive pressure became much stronger. Although we went down 14–3, the improvement from the first match was very clear to see.
By the time we reached our third match against Henderson, the team was beginning to grow a little tired. Once again, we experimented with a few positional changes; however, they did not work out quite as planned. Despite this, the girls never stopped encouraging one another and continued to put in effort right until the end, eventually finishing with a 13–1 result.
In our final match against Chaffey, we reverted back to more comfortable positions, which immediately made communication and movement with the ball much smoother. However, Chaffey proved to be a very strong side and challenged us across all areas of the court. Despite going down 14–1, the girls played with great determination and finished the day with positivity. It was fantastic to see how much their confidence and teamwork had improved from the beginning of the competition.
One of the standout moments was seeing how much the girls enjoyed playing together. They celebrated each other’s efforts, supported one another throughout the day and should be incredibly proud of the resilience and teamwork shown across all four matches.
Congratulations to the girls on their efforts and for representing MCC so well.