Charlotte Varcoe
A PROPOSAL for a new netball court at the Port MacDonnell Netball Club will be considered by Grant District Council.
Netball Club vice president Narelle Lewis fronted the Grant Council chamber during its November meeting requesting further assistance from elected members with the project estimated to cost about $125,000 with the council’s stipulations.
Ms Lewis spoke about the impacts the current unusable tennis court has on the clubs, claiming it would be beneficial for future netballers to have it redeveloped into a third court.
Speaking with The Border Watch, Ms Lewis said the request had been revisited once again after originally discussing the option with council in 2021.
“We have revisited this because we need it for our junior generation coming through,” Ms Lewis said.
“We are finding more younger girls and boys want to be involved in netball but we do not have the court facilities to be able to give them that opportunity.”
She said at the moment, the junior players typically have to leave the courts on Saturdays for the competitive netballers.
“They are not getting a full game come Saturdays and come training they are also not getting full training because they have to get off for our competitive teams,” Ms Lewis said.
“We have been looking at this for quite some time and the prices are just skyrocketing so we thought we should bite the bullet and do it for the future of our clubs.”
She said there were seven trees which needed to be removed to allow the area to be turned into another netball court for standard netball games.
“We have been fundraising for years, we have no financial income other than fundraising from our members and the local community so other than that it is just what we have been doing through pie drives, raffles, online auctions and things like that,” Ms Lewis said.
“It takes time and that is why we need grant funding to be able to help us do this or our other option was to take out a loan and pay it back over 20 years.
“Ideally we would like some of the stipulations removed because by taking the trees I do not think the courts would be touched or damaged anymore.”
She said the club was hoping to continue its original work and either be successful for the grant or a loan and begin on the work.
“The junior players cannot wait for this to happen, they want more court time and they hate getting off and playing six or seven minute quarters rather than up to 12 minutes,” Ms Lewis said.
“They would get double their court time and also on Saturdays we have a lot of kids playing here.
“Although it does not look so bad at the moment because it is dried out, in the middle of winter the kids slip and slide and it can also be very dangerous.”
She said having the new court would also allow for players to practice shooting and use it for a warm up area for juniors and seniors.
“At the moment there is usually a 15-minute break between each senior game so we have to use the courts to warm up so having the extra court will really help,” she said.
It is expected elected members will discuss the future of the decision at its next meeting.
