Shepparton B-grade netball all set for GVL decider

Sep 21, 2023

It’s on: Shepparton will have quite a challenge ahead, taking on an Echuca side that dropped a single game — by one goal — all season. Photo by Megan Fisher

Heading into the premier day of competition in Goulburn Valley League a diverse range of teams still have ultimate prizes on the line.

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Followers of Shepparton will be cheering on two fronts as their 17-and-under and B-grade netball teams shoot for glory on Sunday afternoon at Deakin Reserve.

B-grade will have quite a challenge ahead of it, taking on an Echuca side that dropped a single game — by one goal — all season.

However, Bears coach Stacey Thompson believes the Murray Bombers are fallible and says her squad is up and about for the occasion.

“The girls are really excited,” Thompson said.

“We’ve had a really good last month and we’ve kept building up over that time.

“We’re ready to have a crack at Echuca on Sunday.”

Echuca (17-1) tore through most of the season, finishing as the league’s dominant outfit with just shy of 60 goals a game on average.

The Bears (14-3-1) snuck into second place by virtue of playing the season’s only draw against Rochester, entitling them to a qualifying final at Seymour’s expense.

Although Echuca took the spoils in that earlier finals meeting with Shepparton, the Bears held it to well below its season average with 46 goals.

Thompson believes her squad will be in greater control, ensuring it goes differently this time against its opponent.

“We had a really strong first half (in the qualifying final), but we made some errors that let Echuca back on top,” Thompson said.

“If we can stick to our plan for 60 minutes, anything is possible.

“They’re beatable, but it’s up to us to do our jobs.”

After ‘’had-to-see-it-to-believe-it’’ scenes in last week’s preliminary final win over Seymour, when a swarm of bees interrupted play for several minutes and created anaphylactic fears, Thompson mercifully has no absences to worry over.

“Thankfully we’re all good and ready to go,” Thompson said.

“Our mantra has been ‘it’s taken all of us all year to get here’, because we’ve had a lot of girls fill in for A-grade, but a lot of injuries as well.”

Amidst the chaos though Thompson encountered a shining light primed to take centre stage on Sunday.

“We had a 17-year-old, Ruby Higgins, come up from juniors to B-grade during the year and she ended up second in the league best-and-fairest,” Thompson said.

“She’s a fantastic goaler, very versatile.”