Shepparton News’ Goulburn Valley League Netball Rising for May: Mooroopna’s Rhani Hendy

The teen talent didn’t just walk onto the netball court — she zipped, darted and slingshotted across it like a blue-and-white blur.

Hendy has gone from promising junior to The News’ GVL netball Rising Star for May — and she’s done it with the urgency of someone who refuses to wait their turn.

Her elevation to starting centre for the Cats has felt less like a promotion and more like a revelation.

Coach Di Hanslow has found herself with a livewire in the nerve centre; a player with the foot speed of a wing attack, but the smarts of a seasoned pivot.

Following the Cats’ victory over Shepparton United in mid-May, Hanslow paid credit to the burgeoning young midcourter.

“She’s as slight as can be, but turned over a lot of ball for us — she’s a pocket rocket,” she said.

There’s no better term to describe her impact: sudden, sharp and explosive.

Hendy’s May resume sparkled, matching it with some of the competition’s top centres in Euroa’s Hollie Reid and Seymour’s Casey Adamson

In the GVL’s 17-and-under interleague thriller against Ovens and Murray League, Hendy didn’t just hold her own — she owned the asphalt, collecting best-on-court honours in a come-from-behind 52-50 win that had onlookers blinking twice at her birth year.

For Mooroopna, she’s fast becoming a not-so-secret weapon.

For the rest of the competition, she’s an emerging problem — one that tends to appear suddenly wherever the ball is.