NETBALL will return to the region when the opening round of the 2020 Western Border Netball Association junior competition kicks off this Saturday.
The junior football series launched last weekend, but the netballers have taken an extra week to put everything in order, before slotting seamlessly into the same draw on Saturday.
WBNA president Jo Gibbs said the competition would run in line with junior football, after discussions between both bodies to create the draw.
“We are starting a week later, so basically the round we have missed we will catch up over the next couple of weeks,” she said.
Games will be played in their normal format, with the only change to game day a slight delay in starting times to accommodate for cleaning of equipment between matches, which Gibbs said would push the finish time back to around 1-1.30pm.
A nine-week home-and-away season will be played, before grand finals are held on the last weekend of September.
“We will play right up until the week before the 26th of September – like the junior football – then there will be a grand final day where the top two teams from each grade will play off,” Gibbs said.
“We discussed that at a junior football meeting – we looked at when was a good time to finish and given the shortened format, whether it was worth having a finals series.
“We all agreed just the top two sides would play off in a grand final.”
After an unorthodox start to the winter sport season, Gibbs said it was good to finally put players on the courts, with all Western Border clubs – apart from Casterton Sandford – filling each grade.
“The clubs have been great and there is lots of support there,” she said.
“We met with them and asked what their feeling was and made sure everyone was on board and addressed any concerns clubs might have – but there really was not many.
“Obviously in South Australia we are fortunate because the restrictions have sort of dropped off a bit – they are not quite as stringent as they were.
“Clubs have been great and we have had great support from the junior footy – we are all keen just to create that family atmosphere that we have all been craving I think.”
The Western Border netball competition caters for Under 11’s to Under 17’s, with two Under 13 and Under 15 grades.
With limited time for players in each junior grade, Gibbs said it would not be ideal for youngsters to miss out on a year of competition.
“We were really conscious too of kids missing out on a season,” she said.
“Whether you are a top age or a bottom age, there are two years in those age groups for a reason.”
With that in mind, Gibbs said everyone was excited to finally be under way this weekend and return to some form of normality.
