By Lauren Henry

Solid playing numbers and an A Grade team full of new faces has reinvigorated the netball department at the newly-merged Southern Mallee Thunder this season.

Co-coaches Steph Thomson and Jodie Hayes coached Southern Mallee Giants A Grade last season and will lead the Thunders’ top side in 2024, welcoming several key additions to the line-up.

Thomson said from the very first pre-season training, it was evident the club had taken a positive turn.

“We had about 28 girls turn up, which is a huge improvement from last year, that’s for sure,” she said.

“The younger guys and the girls are actually able to play with kids their age, which is really exciting. 

“And there’s just more people around and we’ve actually got under 17s, and a C Reserve – we have  all the grades now.”

Thomson said practice matches against Pimpinio and Birchip had allowed coaches to trial new combinations.

“We’ve a good team, we’ve numbers this year, and a versatile squad,” she said.

“We’re also very tall and fit, which is really nice.” 

The Thunder has recruited a list of versatile players who can play a variety of positions, including Sydney Thorogood, from Nhill, Caitlin Douglas, from Mildura but going to university in South Australia, and Abby White, originally from Yaapeet, will return home from university.

Also returning home is Mackenzie Bellinger, originally from Hopetoun but attending university in Geelong, while Miley Cox from Jeparit-Rainbow and Connie Rule will also bolster the top side.

“We’re excited that we actually don’t know what our starting seven will be just yet,” Thomson said.

The Giants A Grade won just four games in the Wimmera league in season 2023, while Jeparit-Rainbow finished fifth on the Horsham district league ladder, with nine wins.

“We had every injury possible. I think one game I called 15 girls to play. That was across the board and we weren’t very successful. We just really struggled with numbers,” Thomson said.

“Hence why everyone’s really excited this year.  We just want to be as competitive as we can.

“Obviously, the end goal would be to win the premiership, but finals would be amazing.”

The Thunder netballers will host Warrack Eagles at Jeparit on Saturday.

“We’ll just take each week as it is. We’re quite a new team, so it’ll be just about actually putting a full 15 minutes together, and trying out different things,” Thomson said.

“The rolling subs is probably going to be handy. To have different options that we can try immediately.”

Coaches:

A Grade: Jodie Hayes and Steph Thomson 

B Grade: Shelby Donnan

C Grade: Jamie O’Reilly 

C Reserve: Kat Landrigan and Cathy Moore

17-and-under: Jayne Shannon

15-and-under: Kim Decker and Rach Watson

13-and-under: Jayne Shannon

NetSetGo: Coco Landrigan, Holly Doxey and Taya Horman

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