The annual Association Championships will be held this weekend, with Shepparton Netball Association receiving hosting rights of the North East division for the 10th time.
Games will be played at the McEwen Reserve courts on Sunday, May 25.
The tournament is in its 25th year and its role is to display the region’s deadeye goalers, zippy wingers, mastermind centres and ruthless defenders.
And the Goulburn Valley’s girls are ready to put on a show.
Players are invited by each league across Victoria to join their representative team for the Association Championships.
Sunday’s two grand finalists in the top division will be invited to Melbourne on June 29 to compete in the state championships.
Netball Victoria general manager of high performance and pathways Megan Simpson said tournaments such as the Association Championships helped highlight the state's wealth of netball talent.
“The strength of the Victorian netball pathway begins at Association Championships where the best netball talent in those regions is on show,” Simpson said.
“The Association Championships are integral to the pathway and development of athletes and umpires with talent identification opportunities at each event.
"This allows Netball Victoria to grow a strong pool of talent in both disciplines.
“We thank the associations who have been selected to host the 25th year of Association Championships.
"Their commitment to developing the next generation of netballers is much appreciated by Netball Victoria and we look forward to working in partnership with them to deliver successful events.”
SNA president Jan Davies said Sunday's event would be a great opportunity for the region's junior netballers.
“Shepp was the first place for association champs to be held, so we were invited by Netball Victoria to host them this year,” Davies said.
“(The tournament is) really important because we don’t get netball at that level all the time here.
“It is not only the netballers — it is the umpires that get invited to then go to a camp to progress in their netball just like the players get.
“They more focus on talent identification in Melbourne at the state titles, but there are still people wandering around identifying people to look at for when they go down to Melbourne.”
Davies said the SNA was facing an uphill battle to compete with neighbouring competitions such as the Goulburn Valley, Murray, Kyabram District and Picola District leagues.
“It’s a bit slower this year,” she said.
“We have noticed a huge decrease in our numbers, unfortunately, due to the fact that now some of the leagues have 11-and-under and 13-and-under.
“As you can imagine, we are in a catchment area where we have got the GVL, the KDL, Picola and Murray leagues and we have to contend with all of those.
“A lot of the kids once they get to the afternoon (competitions) — so they are at high school — they actually go out to the football leagues because either their brothers or somebody else in the family plays there.”
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