Hope you all enjoyed your Easter break last weekend and are looking forward to another Round of Football and Netball.
This week’s Round will be dedicated to Umpire Development and we have been very fortunate to acquire the Services of Ann Castles and Deb Hemer from Netball Victoria. On Friday evening a “Rules Discussion” and Netball Connect information session for Umpires will be held at the Warrnambool Netball Stadium from 7.00 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. Then on the Saturday/Monday, Ann and Deb along with other Umpire Educators will be at your games providing valuable mentoring for all Umpires. Umpires play an important role in our game and as you’ve no doubt heard before, you can’t have a game without them. Providing Umpire development will help grow and improve the standard of our netball in the HFNL and we will continue to provide opportunities to assist their development in the future.
This week a HFNL Media Release recognised two significant members of the Hampden League Netball Community. Both Dot Jenkins and Tracey Baker have been recognised for their outstanding contributions to Netball within the Hampden League. The Open Netball Best & Fairest Award will now be known as the “Dot Jenkins Medal” and the Division 1 Best & Fairest Award has been named the Tracey Baker Award” What an honour it is for both Dot and Tracey and a fantastic opportunity for the League to recognise the outstanding service both these ladies have given to our game over many many years both on and off the court.
Congratulations Dot and Tracey.
It’s always a pleasure to acknowledge the milestone games and this week we Congratulate Molly Hutt from the Cobden FNC for playing her 100th Open game. Molly has been around the courts for a very long time having played all her Junior Netball for Cobden. She has also done some coaching and umpiring during her journey and has been a representative player for the League on many occasions. Congratulations Molly!
Round 2 results
Sarah Moroney put in another strong performance to help Cobden score a comfortable win over Portland – Cobden winning 57 – 33.
Hamilton Kangaroos were very competitive against Warrnambool going down by 7 goals at the final siren – 49 to 42.
Terang Mortlake are starting to build and gel as a team and were victors over Port Fairy by 13 goals. Eboni Knights was Terang Mortlake’s best player and Maddie Green had a great game for Port Fairy.
Hollie Phillips was accurate in goals teaming well with Olivia Marris to help South Warrnambool score a 27 goal win over a young Camperdown team.
Koroit and North Warrnambool had a great battle all game with the end result being a draw. Mia Mills was a strong performer through the centre court whilst Rachel Batten was instrumental in defence holding Nell Mitchell to just 18 goals for the match.
My predictions for this Week
South Warrnambool are playing a great brand of netball under new Coach Will Jamison and will have a comfortable win over Port Fairy.
North Warrnambool take on Warrnambool at Reid Oval and the Eagles certainly have a strong team list but they are still working on finding their best combinations. Warrnambool will be relying on their experienced players to perform well. I think North will win accuracy in the circle will be a key factor.
Terang Mortlake will be keen to see how they match up against powerhouse Koroit. Terang will struggle to overcome the strength of Koroit’s attack and the saints will take the points in this game.
Close town rivals, Camperdown and Cobden do battle at Leura Oval. Camperdown have some very talented up and coming players but that will not be enough to overcome another premiership contender in Cobden. Cobden will win comfortably.
Portland travel to Melville for their Anzac Day clash with the Hamilton Kangaroos. Portland continue to be a competitive team this season and will make teams earn the premiership points. This game will be no different but I think Hamilton will come away with a narrow win.
Good Luck to all Football and Netball teams competing this weekend.
