52 — Centralian Advocate, Friday, June 1, 2012

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FoursureNETBALL

Steve Menzies

ALICE Springs will bewell represented in Terr-itory sides at nationalnetball championshipsnext month.

There are four playersin the 21-and-under team— Caitlyn Andresen,Jordann Hickey, JessJohannsen and JoyWoods — with Deb Graycoaching the side andAngel Akarana the man-ager.

Woods has beenselected as one of fourover-age players or im-ports allowed in the Terr-itory team.

There are also fiveCentralians in the NTteam for the under-12titles — Abbey Brown,S o p h i e G a y n o r ,Anastasia Pannel l ,Courtney Summers andLidiya Tangey.

Andresen, 19, said theprospect of playingagainst the best youngplayers in the country,some who play in theANZ Championships andcould be in the world-champion Australianteam, was ‘‘a littlescary’’.

She said: ‘‘While itsounds scary, it shouldbe a good experienceand a chance to repre-sent Alice Springs andthe Territory.

‘‘I saw it as an oppor-tunity and thought Iwould give it a go — theworst thing that can hap-pen is that we lose.

‘‘This is my first repre-sentative selection forthe NT although I playedwith the Alice Springsunder-17s in the NT Linktitles in 2010 and repre-sented Alice Springs andthe NT in the Australianvolleyball titles.

‘‘I am really excited tobe going, although I amnervous now that I thinkabout the players we willbe up against.’’

The four players willtrain together for the firsttime on Sunday and allthe team will be in AliceSprings for a trainingcamp next weekend.

With the titles beingheld in Perth (under-21)and Adelaide (under-12)all the players are facingconsiderable costs to beable to go where theirtalent leads them.

Apart from the cost oftravel, accommodationand food, the playershave to pay for theiruniform if they do nothave one.

The 12-and-underplayers also have a train-ing weekend in Darwinto attend.

Gaynor said: ‘‘We loveour netball, we love play-ing for the Territory andwe really love represent-ing Alice.

‘‘But all of this comesat a big cost to each ofour families.

‘‘The training camptrip to Darwin and thenour trip to Adelaide willcost each player $2000.

‘‘We are all busy tryingto raise money to reducethe costs that our famil-ies have to pay.’’

The six Alice Springsrepresentatives in the21-and-under team willdiscuss their fundraisingat training on Sunday.

Memo,Weststo hitbackNETBALL

Steve Menzies

Rovers’ Kelsey Rodda battles Federal’s Billie Newton for the ball Picture: MICHAEL POTTS

TWO sides will be looking forredemption they don’t needin the McDonald’s AliceSprings Netball AssociationA-grade games at the PatGallagher Netball Centre to-morrow.

Memo Rovers Scope andWests’ Gillen Club, sittingsecond and third on thepremiership ladder, clash inthe match of the round at3pm.

Both are coming off losses,due in part to a poor quarterwhen they both scored onlyfour goals in the 15-minuteperiod.

But they have to forgetabout that aberration andconcentrate on what they dowell — that is play netball.

Wests, looking to play intheir first grand final since2006, need to win this game tohave a realistic chance for atop-two finish to the minorround.

A win for Rovers, who haveplayed in the past six grandfinals for three premierships,would have them three winsand percentage ahead witheight games to play.

Wests’ coach Naomi

Preece said: ‘‘I am gettingover the disappointment ofthe third quarter disasterfrom last week.

‘‘I have to readjust andhave to make the right decis-ions on when and whatchanges to make.

‘‘This will be a test to makesure we can play four strongquarters and not just three.

‘‘We are improving but wehave to be consistent andsolid.

‘‘Rovers are a quality sideand to match them will be agood performance — but wewant to win after that loss toSeasons.’’

There will be engagingclashes all over the court butnone more so than the onebetween Alice Springs NTLink title-winning team-mates Carlie Martin and JessJohannsen.

Both are top qualityplayers and if either gets theupper hand it will be a mam-moth step towards theirteam’s success.

Johannsen will be lookingfor a Wests teammates tofeed her quality ball so shecan be in position to shoot awinning score while Rovers’goalkeeper Martin stands be-hind the hardest defensiveside in the competition.

There will be other keyclashes around the court buta pivotal area is likely to bebetween unsung centresShannan Rosier (Rovers)and Lauren Wapling (Wests).

They are the players whowill drive the ball forward —and provide the court cover-age to block the smooth ballmovement into their op-ponent’s attack.

Rovers coach LeanneSoutham will have workedon the errors that led to theside’s four-goal final termlast week because she alwaysworks to eliminate these er-rors.

She will have the playersfocussed on this week andthe job at hand.

While it is a different sidethat played in all those grandfinals, winning four, thecharacter of the side hasremained the same and thisshould get the team over theline in a great game.

The other two games willbe testing times for the foursides involved.

No one expects anythingother than for LassetersSeasons to defeat Sun-downers Gapview from1.30pm and Federal Trusty

Glass to overcome NeataGlass Giants from 4.30pm.

The question will be howthe sides perform.

Federal and Seasons willnot want to let their efforts oflast week slip, while Sun-downers and Giants willwant to show hope for thefuture.

The answer for all foursides will rely on the playersavailable, with Seasons hav-ing the chance to give MaiSegi a couple of weeks’ rest,with no games next week dueto the Finke Desert Race,after the key defender in-jured her ankle last week.

Finals dayBASKETBALL

Warren Thomson

Desert Storm Jets’ Fabian Johnson tries to break through City Green defencePicture: JUSTIN BRIERTY

WINNERS of the SchoolSport NT Under-13 cham-pionships will be decided thismorning when the unde-feated teams of both boys’and girls’ competitions lockhorns.

Desert Storm Opals hadwon all four games beforetheir clash against fellow lo-cal side Desert Storm Scor-pions, who played in the finalround of yesterday’s games,and take on the undefeatedNorthern Suburbs Red at9.10am.

Northern Suburbs Red hasbeen in great form, winningall five their games so far.

But a win won’t guaranteea championship win, withNorthern Suburbs Red fin-ishing the round-robin tour-nament against DesertStorm Scorpions, while Des-ert Storm Opals play North-ern Suburbs Yellow in one of

the final games of the cham-pionships.

Desert Storm Scorpionshave played well and won oneout of their first four games.

In the boys competition,City Green and City Redwent in to their last gamesyesterday undefeated, andtheir game against eachother at 8.15am this morningis set to decide the boyschampionships.

Desert Storm Boomershave won one of their fourgames and although DesertStorm Jets haven’t won agame, they are still tryingtheir best.

Games resume today at8.15am and the final threegames of the championshipsstart at 12.50pm.

At the end of today’s cham-pionships a squad will befinalised and will be trainingtonight and tomorrow morn-ing.