ORANGE’S attempt at stretching its unprecedented Central West State League dominance to an incredible two decades will begin a little sooner than first thought.
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Next year’s tournament will be played in March instead of the traditional end-of-season scheduling during August, a month that next season will feature the 2015 Netball World Cup over 10 days in Sydney.
In a bid to boost attendance levels at the World Cup, Netball NSW is encouraging associations to schedule general byes during that 10-day period and, on top of the state league move, the Orange Netball Association is set to take a one-week break on the weekend of August 14 and 15.
Netball NSW west-central west regional coordinator Mardi Aplin said the state league’s move to the pre-season was the easiest for everyone involved.
“We really didn’t have a choice,” she added.
“With the west-central west area being such a big one, there’s plenty of carnivals on throughout the course of the season, so a pre-season rather than post-season as such scheduling seemed like a good idea.”
The opening round of the 2015 Central West State League season will be on Sunday, March 1, in Bathurst.
The second round will then return to Orange on March 22 before the finals are played, again at Anzac Park, on March 29.
Aplin said there was plenty of up-sides to an earlier state league season.
“We’re hoping associations will deem the state league as a good pre-season competition to launch into state age and open championships in 2015,” Aplin said.
“It should provide some good, hard netball early in the year.”
Orange won last year’s title for a record 19th consecutive time courtesy of a 56-47, come-from-behind victory over Dubbo.
Dubbo knocked off Orange by a goal in the opening round of 2014 and, by and large, the blues’ ascension to state league contender was one of the highlights of last year’s series, a highly skilled tournament where Bathurst and a tough, second Orange outfit also shone on the court.
Aplin conceded there was a possibility the level of netball won’t be as high being so early in the year but was hopeful teams had enough time to prepare.
“I would like to think most associations have started training by that point away,” she said.
“Everyone will be in the same boat; I don’t think most west-central west competitions begin until April anyway, so it’ll be a level playing field.”
