NETBALL STAR’S COUGARS FOCUS
Australian Netball League season cancelled
NETBALLER Tori Honner will cast her attention on Geelong Cougars’ season after her Australian Netball League hopes were dashed this year.
Honner, 23, was preparing for her first season in the ANL with the Victorian Fury before the season was cancelled yesterday.
“Considering we’ve had such a long pre-season now and we’ve been working hard as group together to stay fit, (it’s) extremely understandable that it got called off,” Honner said. “We all understand, and everyone’s in the same boat. It’s time to move on and keep going.”
Netball Australia confirmed it had cancelled its ANL season, which is the feeder competition for Super Netball.
The game’s governing body said it was forced to cut the competition for this year due to financial pressures and inconsistent restrictions on training and matches between states and territories. The season, which is played between teams from all six states and two territories, was due to begin in line with the 2020 Super Netball season on August 1.
It means fellow Geelong pair Brooke Allan (Tasmanian Magpies) and Allie Smith (Vic Fury) will also not take part in the season.
The competition is a key development pathway for the next generation of players.
“I was really excited to see how well I’d go and see how I would progress in that sort of environment,” Honner said.
“I was just keen to get out there and see how it goes.”
Honner’s focus will now turn to the Geelong Cougars’ season, which Netball Victoria is campaigning for a mid-July start.
“It looks like VNL is still going to go ahead,” she said.
“That will be exciting because at least we get to do some sort of netball.
“That will be good because we’ll have a full team. We’ve already started training together with that following the guidelines.”
Allan said it was disappointing to receive the news.
“Considering the type of season it is, it’s quite quick and quite fast,” she said.
“It was quite a long time waiting. We probably would have nearly finished our season by now. It’s pretty disappointing it’s not going to go ahead.”