After finishing second and winning silver in the 2016 New South Wales Primary School Sports Association (NSWPSSA) Knockout last week, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more excited group than Calare Public School’s netball side.
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The 11-strong group headed to Netball Central in Homebush for last week’s state finals pleased just to have made the final eight, but after three gutsy performances they left with silver medals in tow.
They came agonisingly close to winning gold too, losing the final by just four goals.
“We were really happy (with the effort),” Izzy Brotherton-Farr, one of the side’s youngest, said.
Calare’s stars were gunning to follow in the footsteps of their 1990 counterparts, the last of the school’s netball sides to win the state title.
Although it wasn’t to be Brotherton-Farr, Mackenzie Smith and Meghan Eslick all said their side was over the moon to match Calare’s efforts from 1989 in winning silver.
“[Our coaches] told us that, that the last team to win was in 1990 and that probably inspired us the most,” Eslick said.
Calare took on North Sydney in the quarter-finals, winning by a single goal to progress to the final four.
There, the blue and whites defeated Balgowlah Heights 27-24 to win through to the decider against Newcastle’s Bel Air Public School.
Calare fought back though, ultimately going down by four in a thrilling final contest.
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
