After being crowned the Far North Coast Regional State League 2013 Champions in May, Lismore will represent the region when they contest the inaugural GrainCorp Inter-Regional State League competition in Sydney.
Five teams representing regions from around the state will congregate at the Anne Clark Centre on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 September, all vying to take home the 2013 Inter-Regional State Champions title.
Lismore Head Coach Melissa Dundas said the team is extremely excited to be able to test themselves against the best regional netballers from around NSW.
‘It’s a fantastic opportunity for us to travel to Sydney and come up against netballers from other regions,’ said Dundas. ‘We like to play hard and play to win, but we aren’t coming down with too many expectations – it’s one thing to win your region, it’s another to be crowned state champions.’
Dundas said that it was the diversity of members that made the team strong. ‘Our team is a mixture of youth and experience and made up of players from all across the far north coast region. We’ve had some fantastic support from everyone up here, helping us raise funds to send the team to Sydney; I really can’t thank everyone enough for their help.
‘We’re coming down to have a go, play some good netball, and test ourselves. We have some really strong combinations across the court and the girls have been training well, now we are just looking forward to getting started,’ she said.
The five competing associations will participate in a round-robin style format on the first day of competition, before the finals are held on the second day with a state champion announced at the end of day’s play.
Netball NSW regional development manager Nicole Bowles said it was great to be able to deliver a new competition to the regional communities. ‘We listened to the feedback from our regional associations about creating this next level of competition,’ she said. ‘So I’m really pleased we have been able to cater to that request by delivering the inaugural GrainCorp Inter-Regional State League this year.
‘I’d also like to extend a big thankyou to our naming rights partner GrainCorp, who have been such a big support to regional netball over the years; having them jump on board of this newly created competition is a huge support.
‘Finally Netball NSW would like to wish every participating association the best of luck for the competition. We’re excited to get underway.’
Introduced for season 2013, the Inter-Regional State League competition will be supported by GrainCorp, proud partner of Netball NSW. The invitational competition was open to all Division One winners from each regional state league to compete for the title of Netball NSW’s top regional team.
The Lismore Inter-Regional State League team are:
Melissa Bowley
Aimee Clarke
Nikki Connell
Shelley Fletcher
Laura Fry
Tamara Hamshaw
Makara Jacky
Alex Lee
Rene Lowbridge
Jess Thodey.
Head Coach: Melissa Dundas.
2013 GrainCorp Inter-Regional State League – Participating Teams
West/Central West – Orange
Far North Coast – Lismore
South Coast – Illawarra
Northern Inland – Glen Innes
North Coast – Coffs Harbour
