Mentor’s new crop
SUNSHINE Coast Lightning captain Geva Mentor is in the Far North scouting the next generation of Suncorp Super Netballers at Cairns Netball.
The English goalkeeper is in Cairns this week during her off-season, conducting coaching clinics yesterday and today for players aged seven to 18.
Mentor led her team to the inaugural Suncorp Super Netball title and claimed the club’s first-ever Player of the Year award earlier this year and was impressed with the Far North talent.
“It is exciting to get up here in the off-season and explore Queensland, it is obviously now the state that I play in as a Sunshine Coast Lightning player,” Mentor said.
“I had the contact through Kym McPhee-Smith and she was fantastic in getting me up here for a few days.
“I am passionate about get- ting out in the community and doing clinics. For me, it is exciting to get out there and show people how fun netball can be and all the fun opportunities that can come from it.
“There was certainly some talent out here today at Cairns and it was great to see so many smiles as well.”
Mentor has just finished representing England in the Netball Quad Series against Australian, New Zealand and South Africa earlier this year and now looks forward to the Fast5 Netball World Series in Melbourne next month.
The defending premiers Lightning begin their preseason for the second campaign in November.
The Sharon Finnan development camp, which provides opportunities to all indigenous netball players in the Far North region including Thursday Island, Palm Island, Weipa, Mt Isa and the Far North communities, was also training at Cairns Netball yesterday.