Holland makes it a night to remember
THE GFNL enjoyed a mixed night on Monday on the final evening of Barwon Junior Netball Championship season, with one of its three teams to reach the grand final taking out the title.
The under-15s side claimed a 44-32 victory over Ballarat to round out a stellar year.
Leopold rising star Amelia Holland was crowned bestand-fairest — her second straight Barwon Junior Netball Championship best-andfairest — in only her first season at under-15s level.
Netball Victoria Western region manager Mel Taylor said Holland was a player of the future.
“She is a superstar, she is fantastic and is only bottom age,” Taylor said.
“She rotates through all of the centre court positions and she will step up (even more) in the under-15s next year (as a top age player), but last year she won this award in the under-13s as well.”
In the remaining championship finals the under-13s fell 30-33 to Ballarat, while the under-17s went down 31-48 to Colac.
Taylor said the championships were an ideal pathway for talent identification programs across the region and the state.
“The under-13 competition is used by the Barwon Sports Academy netball program and the coaches to identify talent,” she said.
“So we have had coaches come down and they’ve identified some players they’d like to come down and trial. In the under-15s they get identified at the Netball Victoria association championships and are invited to train with their academy program if they are identified.
“And then with the under-17s the players who are identified, they can be invited to the state screening day.”
The Barwon Junior Netball Championships started in 2014 and have grown from a fourteam league into a six-team competition that runs for 10 weeks.
The selection process for all six sides started last November with teams then picked from those trials.
Teams also play in the Netball Victoria association championships with some also competing recently in interleague matches.