Goulburn Valley teams gear up for Netball Victoria’s 2024 Association Championships finals day

The powerhouse Goulburn Valley League is sending open-age and 17-and-under contingents to contest the tournament, with the former eyeing a tasty opening-round clash.

Up first on the chopping block is the Ovens and Murray League.

Less than a month has passed since the GVL’s stunning five-goal win over its country foe in a senior interleague clean sweep, making Sunday's first match a renewal of their rivalry.

There is plenty of chatter about the older age groups and how they’ll fare.

But the juniors aren’t going just to make up numbers either.

The Murray Netball League and Shepparton Netball Association’s 13-and-under sides were the teams to beat in May’s Wodonga-hosted North East Association Championships.

The MNL edged out SNA in the decider, but by reaching the stage, both outfits gained passage to this Sunday’s finals day.

It’s been a long and challenging journey to reach the hallmark event on the state netball calendar for the SNA, with rep squad team co-ordinator Lyn Flynn detailing the side’s five-month journey.

“Back in February, we picked two under-13 teams and one under-15 team, they’re our association champs teams, and they trained all the way through,” she said.

“We attended several lead up tournaments in Shepparton, Echuca and Wangaratta.

“Then we took the three teams to Wodonga to contest the Association Championships North East zone qualifying tournament.

“Our under-13 team made it to the grand final and got beaten by the Murray league team, but that qualified them for the state titles now in Melbourne on Sunday.

“There’s 12 under-13 teams from the state of Victoria from the various zones contesting for the state title, so they’ve done an excellent job.”

Flynn indicated from the 10 players selected for Sunday’s finals day, only two made the trek to the 2023 event.

This year the crop appears to be even more talented than the last, with a promising run during the association tournaments blowing a real gust of wind into SNA’s sails.

So expect the girls to give it an almighty shake this weekend.

“It is a big thing for them,” she said.

“The players in the team come from the various clubs in our association; we have players from Euroa, Mooroopna Cats, Greater Shepparton Secondary College.

“It’s a mixture of the best under-13 players from our association.

“Every one of those three lead up tournaments, this team basically went through undefeated and made it to the finals in every one.

“So they’ve been thereabouts anyway and, unfortunately, they went down to the Murray league rep team which will also be heading down to Melbourne on Sunday.”