Budgies hope to soar at netball challenge
NETBALL WHEN Shiianne Barlow and Rhyanna Yow-Yeh tell you they’re part of the Australian Indigenous Schoolgirls’ team, they do so with great pride.
The Far North netball stars, both aged 16, will represent their country and their culture with the Budgies, Australia’s Indigenous schoolgirls’ team, at the International Secondary Schoolgirls Netball Challenge in New Zealand this week.
“It’s an honour and privilege to represent Indigenous Australia in netball and I represent my Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage with absolute pride,” said YowYeh, who plays for the WGC Sharks in the Cairns Netball competition.
“These events give me the opportunity to showcase the talent and strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls, as well as be a role model for other young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls who want to pursue their dreams and aspirations in netball,” she said.
This year will be Yow-Yeh’s last representing the Budgies and she’s hoping for a topthree finish at the challenge, against other teams from Australia, Fiji, South Africa, Malaysia and New Zealand.
“Most of the girls in our team have played together previously on a number of occasions so I think having that advantage this year will hopefully make us a stronger team,” she said.
While the schoolgirls’ challenge will be the second time Yow-Yeh travels overseas for her netball, it will be an all-new experience for her teammate Barlow.
The Trinity Beach Bulldogs mid-court specialist said she was “excited and grateful” for the opportunity.
“I’ve been in the Budgies team for a couple of years, but it was just competitions in Australia,” she said.
“This will be my first international competition. It will be a good learning experience, developing my skills against those teams. It will also give me an idea of what I need to do to improve.”
Barlow said she hoped to encourage more indigenous girls to play sport and “know they can go far”.
The two girls touched down in Palmerston North, New Zealand, over the weekend with their Budgies teammates for the week-long tournament.