Mid Canterbury Netball’s Emerging Talent programme for 2024/25 has officially been launched.

In total, 58 under-16 and under-18 players were invited to be a part of the 2024/25 Emerging Talent programme at the end of the 2024 netball season, and they came together for the first time as a group on November 1 to find out what the programme had in store for them.

The programme includes resources and information to assist the players with their off-season and pre-season preparation, and practical sessions over three Fridays and a whole weekend in February and March.

A highlight of the launch was having two young local players – Makeleta Ula and Amelia Mitchell – speak to the group about their experiences. Makeleta was one of two local players selected to attend a Netball New Zealand National Development Camp last year, and went on to be selected for the next stage of that, an ‘invited players’ camp. Both Makeleta and Amelia were this year selected to attend a Mainland Netball advanced camp after strong showings at the South Island Secondary Schools’ tournament.

Local physiotherapist Caroline Polson was also at the launch to go over the importance of quality technique, while this year’s Mid Canterbury U18 coach Cindy Meadows spoke to the group about training with purpose.

The players selected for the Emerging Talent programme were selected by independent selectors over the final weeks of the 2024 netball season, and announced at end of season prizegivings.

Mid Canterbury Netball development officer Natalie Lucas said being a part of Emerging Talent isn’t the be all and end all, though. Anyone can put their hand up to trial for Mid Canterbury’s age group representative teams, regardless of whether they were part of Emerging Talent or not.

“We know that there’s some players out there who were really disappointed to have missed out.

“For some it might’ve been that they got injured and missed the end of the season when the selectors were out and about observing, or they just weren’t really seen enough by the selectors for one reason or another.

“There’s also some players who simply couldn’t be a part of Emerging Talent due to things like other summer sporting commitments. We still absolutely urge all of these players to come along to trials,” Lucas said.

Mid Canterbury Netball’s Emerging Talent programme began three years ago, as a way to try and improve the overall standard in that under 16 and under 18 space, and Lucas said the results are really starting to be seen.

“If you look at our under-16 space in particular, we really were spoilt for choice when it came to our under-16 rep team selections in 2024 and both our A and B teams really came along in leaps and bounds from 2023, so that’s really exciting moving forward. We really hope that will continue and feed into our under-18 team over the next couple of years,” Lucas said.

Trials for Mid Canterbury Netball’s rep teams in 2025 will be held at the end of March (U16) and the start of May (U18).

Article added: Monday 11 November 2024