A GROUP of Riverland netballers got a rare opportunity to hit the court last week as part of the Academy Games.
Eleven local juniors were part of the Murray Regional Netball Academy, which competed in the event.
Another local, Benita Dillon, was also part of the coaching panel for the Murray Regional Netball Academy squad, which included girls from the Riverland, Murray Bridge and the Mallee.
The Murray Regional Netball Academy took two teams to take part in the event.
Dillon said the girls had plenty to keep them busy over the three days.
“On Tuesday, which was the first day, they had specialist coaches running them through different sessions,” she said.
“The girls went to all the different coaches throughout the day and learned some amazing new skills.
“They had the state coaches and some Thunderbirds girls there mentoring them.
“So that was a great day for them.
“It was a long one, but it was really good.”
Dillon said the first day was also used to wrap up a challenge all the academies had taken part in during COVID lockdown.
“When COVID hit, all the girls and coaches from the different academies got split up and put into teams,” she said.
“They had to make up a team name and a logo and they had to run from Adelaide to Sydney virtually.
“They had to do their kilometres and post them in their groups to get their kilometres to their next destination.
“They did different challenges and stuff like that over a few months.
“So, part of the Tuesday was spent looking at some of the videos they put in, with things like ball work and foot work drills.
“They had to make little videos and submit them to the program manager at Netball SA.
“They presented all that information and went through everything the girls did during COVID, when people were in lockdown.
“On the Tuesday, the team that they ran to Sydney with during COVID, they were split into those same teams.
“So when they were going around to all the different coaches, they got to meet all the girls in person.”
Dillon said it was a mixed bag of results for the Murray teams, which both included Riverland representatives.
“Wednesday the competition started, where we played five games against the different academies from across South Australia,” she said.
“Then on the Thursday, we had two games, then finals.
“If you made the top four in either division, you got to play finals.
“The Murray girls division one team finished fourth out of 10.
“They got to play Adelaide Metro in the semi-finals and Adelaide Metro were too good for them.
“But it was pretty good for the girls to finish fourth, especially when our girls haven’t had a competition during the year.
“We haven’t played netball every week like the Adelaide girls have, because they had a competition in the end this year.
“It was pretty impressive to make the top four.
Dillon said it was a tougher couple of days for the division two side.
“Our division two team didn’t win a game over the two days, so they had it a bit tough, but the girls had a really good time over the couple of days.
“They learned some new things from the specialist coaches and had a great time.”