Jessie Barnes-Hill is on the hunt for Rumbalara premiership redemption

The highest honours came when she was part of the national Indigenous netball side, the Budgerigars, across 2003-04.

During her long-spanning career she has represented nearly every A-grade side in Shepparton, with stints at Rumbalara, Shepparton Swans, Mooroopna, Shepparton and Shepparton United.

Although Barnes-Hill has been one of the Goulburn Valley’s top goalers for the best part of two decades, it was a period later in her career that the netball star etched her name into the region’s sporting history.

In 2019, 2021 and 2022 (no 2020 season due to the pandemic), Barnes-Hill became the first player in Goulburn Valley League history to go back-to-back-to-back in the Wellman Family Medal for league best-and-fairest.

Despite being in the latter stage of her career, Barnes-Hill was at the peak of her powers, dominating opposition defenders with ease.

This consistent period of high performance led to a call-up for higher honours that Barnes-Hill thought she may have been past — an invitation to join Victorian Netball League side City West Falcons in mid-2019.

“Getting a call up to go down and be a part of the Falcons VNL team was a (career) highlight,” Barnes-Hill said.

“I suppose that happened at a time in my life where I was like, ‘I haven’t got many years left and my best years of playing are behind me’.

“My best years of netball actually happened when I was there.”

The Falcons were looking to cover a mid-season loss and Barnes-Hill’s name was suggested as a potential replacement.

The star goaler said she had been given a tip-off from a friend at the Falcons that they were considering her, but Barnes-Hill didn’t think too much of it until she received a call from Nicole Richardson — now assistant coach of the national team, the Diamonds.

“(Richardson) was involved in Falcons for many years before she got those official (national side) appointments,” she said.

“To get the phone call from her and for her to say, ‘We have seen you play and we want you to join the team’, that was ... I fangirled.

“After I got off the phone to her, I was like a 15-year-old girl again.”

The mid-season recruitment of Barnes-Hill soon became more than a quick fix to add to the Falcons’ squad depth.

With the help of being in a professional environment, the star goaler continued to improve her fitness and game nous, with the results evident given her three consecutive league best-and-fairest awards that followed.

Despite being older than many of her teammates and opponents, Barnes-Hill loved her three-and-a-half-year stint with the Falcons.

However, as Barnes-Hill and her partner Jamie Atkinson had their second child last year, Barnes-Hill decided that two trips down to Melbourne for training on Sundays and games on Wednesdays were no longer plausible.

Instead, Barnes-Hill felt a call to come home to Rumbalara — an Aboriginal community-led football netball club.

“(Rumbalara) is a really special team, and I know that a lot of people say that when you are having success like we have this year, but there is something seriously special about the group of girls in this team,” she said.

“Having some success” is one way to put it.

In 2024, Rumba has been a force to be reckoned with as they are 16-0 with only two games remaining in the home and away season.

This season hasn’t been easy for Rumbalara.

The large-scale redevelopments to its clubrooms meant that none of the netball or football sides could play at their home ground for the first half of the season.

The fact that Rumba managed to remain undefeated during that time points to the strong sense of culture and connection that runs through the veins of the club.

In the A-grade netball, Barnes-Hill believes that Rumba has all the ingredients required for a premiership side.

“There is a good mix of experience and youth and, with our versatility and flexibility, we are able to switch up positions,” she said.

“We have had a few games where we haven’t had key players, but we have still been able to work with that and get the four points.

“Back playing with Jess Bamblett and Soph (Atkinson), I have known Sophie a long time, and we have always wanted to play together, and the stars have aligned this year.

“You don’t want to put the mozz on it, and there are some really talented teams in the Murray league, but we are aiming high, and we have a lot of grit and determination.

“With the club and the community behind us, we are building something special.”

Listening to Barnes-Hill, a Wiradjuri woman, talk about the community aspect of Rumbalara Football Netball Club; it seems so real that it almost feels tangible.

Unfortunately for Rumbalara, Barnes-Hill said that during this season, the same old issues have resurfaced for the club: issues out of its control and so harmful and detrimental to members of its community.

“We have already experienced multiple times this year our juniors have been racially discriminated against and that is not acceptable,” she said.

“I think the league and this area have a lot more to do, especially around inclusion in regards to our First Nations people and Rumbalara.

“We still feel, even our juniors still cop criticism and discrimination and whatnot because of the colours of their skin and because of the club they play for.

“There is still a lot of work to do and it can’t just be Rumba trying to say enough is enough; it needs to be allies and the whole league saying enough is enough.”

Off the netball court, Barnes-Hill works for the University of Melbourne as part of a First Nations health team focusing on mob and community welfare.

On the court, Rumbalara’s star attacker is on the hunt for redemption, with a tough 2016 grand final loss to Echuca United having kept Barnes-Hill and player-coach Bamblett hungry for premiership glory.

“That loss still hurts,” she said.

“It might have been 2016, but it still hurts and we can still feel it.

“It was a loss with Jess Bamblett, too, as we were playing together then, and we still talk about it, and Sophie Atkinson was actually in the Echuca United team that beat us; it still stings.

“Like I said, there is a lot of age and experience in the team and we are not getting any younger, so all that is really driving us to see that success.”

Whatever the result comes to at the end of the season, Barnes-Hill knows she has found the perfect home for herself, her partner and their young family.

“My partner Jamie, this is his family; this is his home and obviously mine now, too, and our kids’ family,” she said.

“It is more than just football-netball; it is everything else that comes with being here.

“This is home; this is the centre; our kids need to grow up here.

“It’s not just about me and Jamie trying to play sport any more, it is about our kids growing up in this.”