NETBALL
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IN a crushing blow, Life Studio will be without player-coach Mardi Aplin for the rest of the 2015 Orange Netball Association Toyota Cup season.
Aplin blew out her knee on the opening day of Orange’s Netball NSW State Championships campaign last weekend, and the torn anterior cruciate ligament spells reconstructive surgery and a long stint on the sidelines for the gun shooter.
“It is disappointing, but in saying that I’m 36 and I’ve never really had any serious injury problems. I’m lucky in that respect,” Aplin said.
“It just means the Life Studio girls will need to step up, it’s a good opportunity really, and they’re a great bunch of girls and players so I’m confident they’ll be able to do that.
“The plan was always for me to take a bit of a back seat as a player anyway, we’ve just been forced into it.”
After going up for a contested ball in the circle, Aplin felt her knee give way when she landed.
“It wasn’t even in one of our bigger games. If it was going to happen at least I’d have liked it to be in a big game, on a hard ball,” she laughed.
“I felt it go straight away though and I don’t think I landed funny, it was just the landing itself.
“I’m booked in for surgery in two weeks, I wanted to make sure I got in quick to cut the time I’m out for down.”
For Aplin, it’s not just the Toyota Cup campaign she’ll miss.
The star shooter will also miss out on taking the field for Arawang in this weekend’s ACT Netball State League grand final on Sunday, where her side is gunning for its third straight title.
The former Canberra Darter retired after the 2014 premiership, but fielded a request from her former coach to lend a hand mentoring the side’s struggling young attacking players.
“I’d only played four games, but I was really looking forward to the grand final so that’s disappointing as well,” she said.
“But I’m confident the girls can get the job done, and I’m definitely going down there to support them.
“It definitely means the end of my career in Canberra, but I’ll be doing everything in my power to make sure I’m back for Life Studio again next season.”
