Rising to challenge
The paths of Minyip-murtoa’s A Grade netballers and senior footballers have been remarkably similar for the past three years.
Both lost grand finals in 2016 and 2017 before falling short of a grand final appearance last year.
Both are desperate to return to premiership contention and claim an elusive flag.
The Burras’ A Grade netballers believe 2019 could be the year they achieve that goal.
First-time coach Billie Bibby will helm the side after Alice Langley – who had been slated to coach – moved away with work commitments.
Bibby said taking over as coach so soon before the start of the season had been challenging, but she could see the team beginning to come together.
“We’re starting to get more numbers at training,” she said.
“It’s hard because we get girls from Horsham, the Minyip-murtoa area and Warracknabeal.
“It’s quite difficult because people in the other towns have things like basketball and tennis training on different nights, so we haven’t had many numbers.
“We’ve changed training to Thursday now and our numbers have definitely increased.
“It has been really good to see some old as well as some new faces.”
Among the new faces are Alex Lang and Ellie Mcgrath.
Lang, a defender with excellent anticipation and timing, comes to the Burras from Edenhope-apsley.
Lang won the Saints’ A Grade best and fairest and was named the Horsham District Football Netball League’s best under-21 player last season.
Bibby said the team was close to signing another two recruits.
The team’s signings will help cover the departures of some of last season’s key players.
A big loss for the Burras will be experienced goal keeper Paula Wiedermann.
Stef Cooper will also depart, while the loss of several players in B and C grades will also test the Burras’ depth.
While the team’s defence is in flux, its attack appears as potent as ever.
Star goal shooter Kirby Knight – who finished as the second-highest goal scorer in A Grade last season – will return, with players such as Maddison Morgan and Georgia Mclennan rotating through goal attack.
Bibby said she was confident her team would be in the premiership mix again this season.
“I think we’re still in a strong position,” she said.
“We have just been really unfortunate for the past few years.
“Every year we’ve identified what’s gone wrong and been able to grow on the back of that.
“It’s about working on the foundations we already have and working on a few little things to hopefully get us the whole way.
“Having played in losing grand finals and then last year, it’s really tough sometimes to bounce back from, but we all love the club and we want to see the club do really well.
“We have the girls to give ourselves a chance again.”