Mooroopna's Georgia Gattuso will celebrate her 200th club game this Saturday.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
A super Saturday awaits at Mooroopna Football Netball Club — not just for the scoreboard, but for the scrapbook.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The Cattery becomes the stage for something far more enduring than four quarters of play, as not one, not two, but five netball players celebrate significant Goulburn Valley League milestones as Mooroopna welcomes Shepparton Swans across the Hume Hwy.
First up is Georgia Gattuso.
The Cats’ B-grade captain bleeds blue and Saturday will be a true crowning moment of a foundation Mooroopna Cats Netball Club member.
Gattuso holds the game record for any player to come through the club’s junior netball program, which, as fate — or foresight — would have it, was spearheaded by her mother Janene back in 2012.
In the 13 years spent at the Cattery, the clever midcourter has won three club best-and-fairest, consecutive Netball Clubperson Awards and even advocates for the sport locally as co-host of the Holding Centre Court podcast.
Next, reaching 100 A-grade games, are Dayna Williams and Shelby Britten.
Mooroopna's Dayna Williams has racked up a raft of awards during her time at the Cats.
Photo by
Liam Nash
Williams is netball’s version of a Swiss Army knife.
A dual-end weapon, she can shoot, defend and lead, but over recent years has transitioned into a fully fledged defensive icon with an athletic prowess few others possess.
Like Gattuso, Williams emerged through Mooroopna’s junior program and has gone on to win a trio of A-grade best-and-fairest as well as gain interleague selection on various occasions.
Britten’s story is a little different to the rest.
In the early years, basketball took her overseas but netball kept her tethered.
Shelby Britten has always made time for Mooroopna during her sporting career.
Photo by
Liam Nash
The midcourt dynamo would return during mid-year breaks, not for trophies or finals — she often missed them — but to wear the navy and white and to stay part of something that felt like origin.
“Shelby, she’s been with us for seven years now,” Janene Gattuso said.
“She used to come back when she was overseas with basketball, she’d just play the season but always miss finals but still kept on with us.”
Rounding out the list are Asha Gray and Keely Madgwick, who will notch 100 club games against the Swans.
Mooroopna's Asha Gray is a bona fide gun through the midcourt.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Gray arrived from Echuca and, though still rising, is already supremely accomplished.
She has brought breakneck speed and sharpness to Mooroopna’s midcourt, and similar to Williams, is a GVL interleague representative and Victorian Netball League regular.
Finally, Madgwick, the 100-gamer with the club in her blood, has been doing the steady, unfussy things well for years.
She’s a wing defence with a sixth sense for the intercept and a CV that includes a junior best-and-fairest gong, a clubperson award and a starring role in last year’s B-grade grand final.
Mooroopna will celebrate Keely Madgwick’s 100th club game this weekend.
While all five milestones will be celebrated with an equal navy and white cheer, Janene Gattuso can look back proudest on those of Williams, Madgwick and her daughter as a byproduct of a seed planted more than a decade ago.
“Georgia, Dayna and Keely have all come through our junior program, our Mooroopna Cats Junior Netball Club,” she said.
“They’re three that have been with us since I implemented that back in 2012.
“They’ve come right through and they’ve continued on and done it. Georgia’s pretty much the key stakeholder in that with 200 games.”
At its best, Mooroopna is not just a club - it’s a living archive.
And this weekend, the Cats’ story gets five new chapters.
7°C