Women power fun, games at the DNA
MANY of the women who form the backbone of the highly successful Darwin Netball Association (DNA) are celebrating up to half a century of dedication to the sport. These veterans and volunteers are responsible for making the DNA what it is today.
Wendy Bury, Grace Carroll, Judy Jenner, Julie Lam and Lua Te Aho are just some of the women who have been living and breathing netball across many decades in the Top End. They have also gone on to watch their daughters and their granddaughters follow in their footsteps on to the courts.
Not only have they enjoyed successes on the court, but they say that Netball has also been central to their personal growth and developing relationships across the wider community.
Wendy Bury began her playing career with Waratahs (which later became Parap) in the 1970/71 season – that’s even before the game was played at its long-time home of Parap Netball Courts.
As well as playing, Wendy also coached school aged netballers, from primary through to secondary school level, and for five years from 1986 she was the NT coach at the Australian Secondary Schools’ U16 Championships. She is particularly proud of the NT team finishing fifth in Tasmania in 1989, showing great NT fighting spirit to defeat ACT, WA and Tasmania.
In recognition of her achievements, Wendy was awarded DNA Life Membership in 1990 and received the Steve Abala Sporting Role Model Award in 2006. She went on to have the DNA Premier League Cup named in her honour.
With such passion for netball, it is not surprising that the sport quickly became a shared love in the Bury family.
“As a player, coach and umpire, with daughters who also played, coached and umpired, we lived and breathed netball and the Parap courts were our second home,” Wendy said.
“Our family Labrador would even make appearances when he wanted some company, knowing exactly where to find us all.
“This commitment to netball made for very hectic times in our household, with team line-ups and
umpiring rosters being drawn up at the dinner table, the car always full of netballs and the clothesline full of netball bibs.
“My daughters are close in age and there were times I would race into netball with two in bassinets or with one in a bassinet and the other two in tow.
“They were happy, hectic times, though we didn’t see a lot of their Dad through the week.”
Her daughters began playing junior netball at school in early 1980 and continued to play through to senior club level.
“Sharyn played with Checkmates and eventually all of us played for Parap. A very fond memory is all four of us playing on the same Parap A-Reserve team one Thursday evening,” Wendy said.
Two daughters went on to become coaches and junior umpires and later represented the NT at U16, U19, U21 and Open level at the Australian National Championships.
All the veterans agree that apart from the obvious benefits of fitness, coordination and team skills, netball
helped to develop competitive spirit, strength of character and resilience, particularly when battling against strong interstate teams from Victoria and New South Wales.
“It brought confidence, self-belief, gave purpose and a wonderful sense of achievement. Equally as important were the friendships and wonderful, enduring social networks created at netball over the years. Many of these friendships remain strong and precious to this day,” Wendy said.
Underlying the pleasure of being involved in the DNA for so long is the sense of feeling part of the community.
“We were like a great family and had such fun after games in the old club rooms. Of course, there were many other non-playing members of the community who contributed to the success of DNA and we enjoyed the times we shared together.”
But it wasn’t always fun and games – there was plenty of hard work to be done behind the scenes by the women.
“I’m sure many of our retired senior netballers can remember the early days at Parap when we
spread mountains of topsoil and planted thousands of lawn runners and cleaned and maintained the old demountable long before the new club rooms were built,” Wendy said.
“How often were Thursday night fixtures interrupted by the lights going off!”
And then there were the blisters gained from sweeping torrential rain from the courts during the Wet season so games could continue. They were the tough old days before the indoor stadium was opened at Marrara.
“I didn’t ever imagine that a beautiful indoor stadium would be possible, so congratulations to all who campaigned hard to achieve this,” she said.
Now that the third generation of the Bury family has taken to the courts, it looks like Wendy won’t be slowing down any time soon.
And her advice to her granddaughters is the same that she gave to her daughters when they took to the courts: “Work hard, do your best, enjoy your wins and remember to always be a good loser.”