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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-16 Daily Xml
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NETBALL AUSTRALIA

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:20): I am excited, sir, to be able to report to the house that netball enthusiasts around the nation have recently been treated to a close-fought test series between the Australian Diamonds and the New Zealand Silver Ferns, traditional rivals since their first meeting 75 years ago when Becky Douglas's team, for Australia, won 40 to 11. In this fast, and becoming even faster, team sport skills at the highest level were on display over the five match contest for the Constellation Cup, which was sponsored by Coles, ANZ, San Remo, the Australian Sports Commission, the Australian National Preventative Health Agency, along with Foxtel, Telstra, Honda, New Idea, Asics, and Kukri and Gilbert.

Netball Australia is to be congratulated on the smooth presentation I witnessed in Adelaide for game 3 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, which I was privileged to attend, representing the Premier and the Minister for Sport and Recreation. I was very happy to be able to take along, as my guest, Mrs Kaye Hood, an icon in my local area for her lifelong commitment to the Tango Netball Club. Tango will be featured on the Florey electorate calendar for the year 2014, which will be distributed throughout the electorate shortly.

Noeleen Dix, president of Netball Australia, in her welcome in the program reminds us that this year is a celebration for the greats, with the 50th anniversary of the 1963 team and the 30th anniversary for the 1983 team, both of whom won World Cup championships. Joyce Brown captained Australia to the first-ever title after a long sea voyage to England, while Julie Francou was captain in 1983. The entire 1983 team were celebrated when they appeared pre-match in Adelaide, and the 1963 team appeared at the Melbourne match, which was number 4, a few days later.

This year's activities lead up to the Commonwealth Games in Scotland and in 2015 the World Cup in Sydney. In Adelaide, with the Governor and Mrs Scarce in attendance, we saluted Sharelle McMahon and bid farewell to South Australia's own Natalie von Bertouch, both outstanding athletes with brilliant careers at the elite level.

Netball Australia is definitely on the front foot in arranging exciting entertainment before, during and after the matches. The crowd really enjoyed the night, particularly so as the series was level; it was 1-all at the start of the night. We first saw the New Zealand Silver Ferns win 55-51 in New Zealand, and Australia evened the series at another New Zealand match 48-45, which was a hard-fought win. During the thrilling two halves here in Adelaide, Australia maintained the momentum, with the lead being pegged back a couple of times, but eventually we prevailed 58-50. Captain Laura Geitz was the most valuable player. Game 4 in Melbourne saw Australia win 52-47.

I am able to report that the Diamonds held a 10 goal lead at one point going in to the final quarter, but they were thrust into survival mode after the Silver Ferns came out firing to cut the margin to 3 goals late in the quarter. The steady heads of our captain Laura Geitz and vice captain Bianca Chatfield, coupled with the finishing work of goal shooter Caitlin Bassett under the ring, were able to give our Diamonds an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the series. Natalie Medhurst was the most valuable player that night.

The fifth game in the series saw a very close nail biter, with Australia prevailing 50-49, so when you see the 4-1 series win it does belie how close the whole thing was. Defence obviously was a key to the strong Silver Fern shooters: the amazing now 41 year old Irene van Dyk, a former South African, was assisted by Maria Tutaia, a long-range goal specialist. We congratulate all the Silver Fern players and their support teams and in particular coach Waimarama Taumaunu, who is a former Silver Fern player and only their ninth coach in their lifetime. Among the South Australian support staff is Michelle den Dekker, a South Australian icon who is now assisting the Tango netball team. Our coach, Lisa Alexander, has around 20 tests under her belt now and is the 14th person to coach the Diamonds, with wins over England and New Zealand already to her credit.

It takes a great team effort to present netball at any level, but especially so at the elite level. We certainly wish the girls good luck as they face off with the Malawi Queens who, I am told, are a very skilful athletic side. Matches are scheduled for tonight in Wollongong, and then on Saturday the 19th on the Gold Coast. This will be well worth watching as we see how the Diamonds handle themselves with the home advantage. We welcome the Malawi Queens to Australia for the first-ever test series, and their coach Griffin Saenda.

We wish them well, but I guess not too well, as we hope Australia does prevail. In this friendly series it is good to see Malawi coming to Australia. I also commend Netball Australia on the marvellous program they have produced. There is so much going on in netball in Australia. I think it is one of the best sports we have, and it would be great to see people support women's sport much more than they do. Netball is a huge drawcard for women in Australia.

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