BRENDAN LINES
FORMER Adelaide Thunderbird and Australian Diamond Emily Beaton will play for Loxton in this season’s Riverland A1 netball competition.
A member of the inaugural Thunderbirds National Netball League team, Beaton played in two premierships with the club, in 2010 and 2013.
After retiring from semi-professional netball in 2016, Beaton is looking forward to returning to play country netball in the town where she was born, after growing up in the state’s South-East.
“I was born in Loxton but never got to play netball in the Riverland,” she said yesterday.
“I grew up playing country netball and that was kind of my pathway to becoming a professional and I have got the best memories and experiences from playing in the country.
“So, I knew when I retired that I wanted to play in the country again.”
Loxton securing Beaton’s services represents arguable the biggest ever Riverland netball recruiting coup, the 33-year-old said the move could have gone another way.
“I was actually speaking to Loxton North and Loxton and I’ve been trying to decide for about four months,” she said.
Aside from her duties wearing black and gold, Beaton said she would share her wealth of experience with other clubs’ juniors as Riverland netball re-starts after being shelved in 2020 due to COVID-19.
‘I’ll definitely do some clinics with Loxton, I think just after Easter, but maybe even with some of the other clubs,” she said.
“It would’ve been really hard not having netball down there last year.
“Everyone knows country sport is such a big part of your community, especially for juniors to have something to focus on. That’s such a positive thing.
“One thing I that absolutely love about country netball is that younger players get the opportunity to play against older people.
“That’s how I developed really quickly and got so much better because I got to play in A grade when I was a young age. I know in our Loxton squad we got I think maybe four or five under 17 players. I can’t wait to meet those girls as well and develop into good players too.”