The South West Mounties MAGIC have hopes to continue their winning streak after a successful inaugural season in the Netball NSW Premier League.
The team has already tasted victory with a 59-52 Opens grand final win over North Shore United to take the competition.
Liverpool City Netball Association President, Rebecca Wakefield, said she is proud of the team’s success in such a short period of time.
“It’s one of those things where you’re so excited for the outcome and you can see the hard work and the dedication that went into it from all levels,” she said.
“We obviously set a very high expectation for ourselves by winning it in the first year and now we establish the franchise well enough to be able to sustain that success and build on it for our lower teams, our Under 23s team.”
Ms Wakefield said creating the club was to help bring athletes into the professional career and to bring attention to the local area.
The South West Mounties MAGIC teams contain players from all around the Liverpool and South West area, including Eastwood Ryde, Randwick, Queanbeyan, Illawarra, and many more.
“South West Mounties MAGIC happened because we wanted to create an elite pathway for the athletes of Liverpool and, by border extension, South West,” she said.
“As a low socioeconomic area, we realised that grassroots netball couldn’t pay for the franchise and that the only way we could establish it at an elite level was to partner with Mounties Care.
“That makes us the first Premier League franchise not to touch grassroots funding, which is very important.”
South West Mounties MAGIC Director Melissa King said winning their inaugural season of professional netball can assist in the positive attitude to continue the success, but can also lead to stiff competition.
“Coming through with continually improved performances versus going into next season as the hunted will be very different, but no doubt they’ll have the mindset to go against that,” she said.
Ms King said having teams in the premier league will influence more younger women into involving themselves with the sport.
“That’s the goal, that’s the reason we went in there,” she said.
“There’ll be plenty of players out at Liverpool City Netball Association and throughout South West who won’t ever make it to that representative level, but can still get so much from role models who are performing at that representative level.”
The team is set to verse experienced teams North Shore United, Manly Warringah Sapphires and ERNA Hawks in the finals in the upcoming weeks.
Feature Image: sportsmark.net
