Muswellbrook 12s Take Out State Netball Spirit Award
By Jem Anshaw
Muswellbrook Netball Association president Josh Kelly is beaming with pride for the Under 12’s team they took to the HART Junior State Titles in Sydney.
The team contested 18 games across the three days which was unsurprisingly a physical and emotional challenge, but they kept the fire in them throughout which was demonstrated in the second last came of the tournament.
“We were playing current leaderboard leaders, which was Nelson Bay who ended up taking out the division,” Kelly recalled.
“We had the game of our lives were everything we’d been trying to do all weekend came together, the girls played an amazing game and we beat Nelson Bay.
“Our coach is a very experienced coach, at the end of that game was the first time I’ve ever seen him get a tear in his eye, it was amazing.”
It is unsurprising to hear that the Muswellbrook team spirit was noticed by the officials who awarded them the inaugural Suncorp Bank Spirit Award, Kelly added with a laugh that they were ‘seen, heard and felt’.
Another thing that caught Netball NSW’s attention was the uniforms donned by the girls, which has been a passions project for the club.
“The representative convener and I spent some time on it and we engaged local, contemporary Indigenous artists, Matt Stair (to design a uniform),” Kelly told The Hunter River Times.
“We spent lots of time going back and forth with him and our committee and we went through multiple different designs and multiple iterations until we got to a point where we had a dress that told the story of our area, contemporary and historical and obviously, in the form of contemporary indigenous art.”
At the conclusion of the weekend Muswellbrook Netball Association finished 11th, coming away with so many reasons to be proud of themselves and all they achieved as a team.
The primary support for the team were head coach Ian Richards, assistant coach Lisa Henry, team manager Kelly Constable and primary carer Kate Simpson, but taking teams to competitions like this is not possible without the unwavering support of sponsors, players, families and supporters which does not go unnoticed.