Sport
15 March, 2025
Marlins in state finals
A GROUP of 20 talented girls aged 15 and 17 have been selected to be part of the Kenfrost Homes Marlin Coast Netball flagship team – the Marlins – to compete this year in the NSW state titles in June.
After a thorough selection process, 20 girls were selected out of 90 applicants to make part of the development team of the Marlins to improve their skills through the year, compete locally and regionally and one big competition for the year – the NSW state titles from June 7-9.
The team is now gearing up for the first clinic of the year led by netball legend Vicki Wilson this weekend to test the synergy of the returning and new players.
“The Marlin Coast Netball Academy have started their season and we’ve selected our Marlins team – 17s and 15s,” said academy president Heather McLaren.
“This year they’ll travel to Sydney in June and compete in the NSW state championships, which will be a great experience because a lot of these girls are in the development stage.
“Last year we went to the Singapore quads and won, which boosted our trial numbers this year. We’re going to make this a biannual event and there’s only a couple of girls in the team who went to Singapore, so it’ll be a great chance for the rest of the girls to compete in NSW.
“The teams are well into their preparation and will be using the next months to hone their skills. It has been challenging for coaches to prepare the teams with no knowledge of the opposition teams, so coaches must try and cover all possible scenarios.
“This weekend we have clinics with Vicki Wilson and looking at selecting the local squads, which the coaches will do.
“On Saturday there’ll be a clinic for the Cairns players at Yorkeys Knob State School from 8.30am followed by a two-hour training session with the current Marlins teams as part of preparation for the NSW titles.
“On Sunday, all players who attended other clinics in Innisfail, Mareeba and Cairns will have a combined academy clinic at Yorkeys Knob State School from 8.30am and they’ll do further skill and match work.
“Then we have carnivals in May and then we leave in June, so it’s a very full-on schedule for the Marlins.”
The next few sessions for the Marlins will focus on court craft and match play, while the players are encouraged to keep fit by doing gym sessions as well as ball and sprint work at their local associations.
