“That’s where they’re up to next,” Dean laughed.

But seriously, this group of young netballers is as talented as they come.

A gun team made up of Eve Davison, Lucy Dean, Emma Kennedy, Bonnie Murphy, Meg Lenehan, Abby Jones, Saige King, Chloe Jacques and Kate Wykes, the McAuley girls proved their talent on two separate occasions this year.

The school was in red-hot form throughout the NSW Netball Schools Cup competition.

During the tournament’s opening stages in June at Bathurst, McAuley found form early going through the initial stage of the tournament undefeated.

On finals day in Orange, the Catherine McAuley girls were placed in a pool with other regional winners, taking on successful teams from Nyngan, West Wyalong and Coonamble.

True to form, McAuley finished on top of its pool, dominating their home courts.

In the business end of the competition, which was held in August, McAuley then a similarly talented side in the form of St Pius, Dubbo, in the semi-final, and narrowly went down before eventually finishing the Cup in third spot.

But they weren’t finished there.

In a separate tournament, the McAuley girls took on the NSW Catholic Primary Schools Carnival at Penrith.

With the best netball teams from Catholic primary schools across NSW and the ACT on hand to knock them off, the Orange representatives faced off against sides from Menai, Pagewood, Queanbeyan, Waverly, Lane Cove, Como and Hurstville.

Not daunted by their opposition, the Orange guns went through the pool undefeated to cap a stellar end to their primary school netball careers.

Dean was rapt with the effort and determination from her group of Year Six students.

“They’ve put in a lot of work,” Dean said

The group training every Monday for several months as they continued to strive to improve.

“They’ve trained, giving up their lunch time every week for two terms,’ she added.

“They’ve got a fantastic attitude, they’ve worked really really hard all year.”

Dean was quick to point out any of the skills the country girls possess are equal to, if not better than anything their city counterparts dish up.

“They’ve shown their skills are well and truly up to anything we came up against,” she said, leaving the side little option but to take on the McAuley teachers.