Cotton leads charge at U18 national titles
Crombie has point to prove at titles
Gold Coast Titans goal shooter Tia Crombie will carry a chip on her shoulder into the National Netball Championships next week.
The Queensland sharpshooter, who will go into the under-19s division as a bottom-ager this year, is determined to prove just why selectors missed a trick after she was snubbed from the AIS talent squad last year.
“When I do get on, I’ll make sure to show them why I should’ve been selected last year,” she said.
Crombie had finished atop the NNC ladder for goal percentage in 2023 with an incredible 91.7 per cent (211 from 230), outnumbering players in both her own age group and the one above.
It was therefore a shock when her name was not on the AIS squad list a week later.
Crombie was a crucial part of Queensland’s first under-17s gold medal since 2015, when she guided them to the title with more than 200 goals.
It’s been a decade since Queensland brought home an under-19s gold medal, but Crombie is confident the squad’s experience together could break that drought. “We definitely want to maintain our title, coming up as bottom age,” she said.
“We know there is a target on our back.”
“If we stick to what we know, we’ll bring back another gold.”
The shooting circle of Crombie, fellow Titan Talitah Faifai and Bond University’s Kaylin van Greunen have a combined in eight national titles campaigns, while the mid court duo of Bond’s Jayden Molo and Sasha-May Flegler return from last year.
With a replacement for Boyd still to be named, Queensland’s only trouble will be making sure nothing also gets in the way before April 9.
Check out more NNC coverage online at www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/sport
The Basketball Australia Under-18s National Championships and Junior Wheelchair Championships return to the Sunshine State in April.
The tournament, which is one of five key national pathways events, will take over the Southpine Sports Complex from April 7-14.
For the second-straight year KommunityTV will exclusively livestream every match from the tournament across all of News Corp Australia’s digital mastheads, including the Gold Coast Bulletin.
The tournament will feature athletes from every state and territory in Australia.
The Junior Wheelchair Championships will also be contested as part of the weeklong tournament, with every match included in the livestream coverage.
Queensland South’s men’s side, which made a shock exit in the semi-final stage of last year’s Under-18 national championships, will return with a strong line-up led by recent NBA Global Academy recruit Indy Cotton along with Zachary McDowell-White.