The Murray League representative under-13s and open netball teams competed in the finals of the Netball Victoria Association Championships at the Victorian State Netball Centre last Sunday.
The teams featured some of the league’s best players selected from the Murray League, including the Deni Rams’ Bonnie Everett in the open side.
This was the first outing for the open representative team, who performed particularly well.
Playing a shortened round-robin format, the best netball league associations across Victoria faced off against each other.
The under-13s and open championships both had two pools, with six in each for the under-13s and one pool of six and one pool of seven in the open competition.
The Murray League open team got four early wins against Northern FNL, Ariels VCNA, Eastern FNL and Whitehorse NA.
They then had a 15-all draw against rivals, the Goulburn Valley League, and a loss to Nillumbik Force NA.
But the team did enough to reach the finals, finishing second in their pool to Goulburn Valley.
The Murray League side then beat the Ovens and Murray FNL 19 to 12 in their semi-final, while the Goulburn Valley League team won their semi-final 16 to 12 against Hamden FNL.
In a rematch of the pool games, the Murray League open netball team played the Goulburn Valley in the championship grand final.
Murray finished second in the state championship by one goal - 15-14.
In the under-13s, the Murray league team won one of their six games against Central Victoria NA, 14 to 13 in the playoffs, finishing fifth in their pool for the day.
In the final of the under-13s, St Alban’s Caroline Springs NA beat Casey NA 14 to 8.
In the under-15s, Goulburn Valley triumphed over St Albans Caroline Springs 11 to 8 while in the under-17s the Ovens and Murray league team beat Altona NA 20 to 12.
Overall, the tournament established the Murray League as having some of the best Netball Association representative teams in Victoria, with Everett doing well at a state level.