From Weipa to Yeppoon: netballers do hard yards

By MATT NICHOLLS

THREE junior netball teams from Weipa have put the town on the map after winning some new admirers at their recent tournament in Yeppoon.

“Some of the other parents were saying ‘where is Weipa’ and couldn’t believe how far away it was,” said Weipa Social Netball Club treasurer Abbey Martin, who organised a lot of the trip.

“It was a fantastic experience. We took three teams and 29 girls in total.”

Just getting to Yeppoon was a difficult task.

The squad flew out of Weipa, stayed in Cairns overnight, then jumped aboard a Bonza flight to Rockhampton before boarding a bus to Yeppoon.

They did the same trip in reverse to get home.

“It was such a well run event,” Abbey said of the Capricorn Coast Junior Netball Carnival.

“We found out about it from Jeff (Neil) one of our local paramedics who was previously on the committee down there.

“It was funny because when we were in Yeppoon there was a recording played with messages and countdowns and they were all voiced by Jeff.”

Abbey said the tournament gave the Weipa girls a great taste of the type of netball that would be commonplace for more urban clubs.

“Our players only train once a week on Mondays and then play a game of about 10 or 15 minutes at the end of practice,” she said.

“To go down there and be around 164 teams, on a mix of grass and hard courts was such a great experience for them.”

Low scoring at Wackers

THE standard of golf was so good at last week’s Wednesday Wackers in Weipa that a 39 off the stick wasn’t good enough to get a gig on the podium.

Ross Craven went three-over on the back nine, but his handicap wasn’t high enough to get a prize on nett.

Instead, Rob Richardson’s 45/31.5 took out honours, ahead of Viv Chan, who also had a great round of 42/33.5.

Matt Byrne (15) and Viv (18) picked up the nearest to pins, while Jim Lucas claimed the Bradman’s.

Northern Pride in finals

THE Northern Pride will travel to Brisbane this Sunday for an elimination final against Wynnum Manly Seagulls after they won their do-or-die final round clash on the weekend.

Up against the Redcliffe Dolphins, the Pride knew they had to win to secure a finals berth and scraped home with a 2826 scoreline at Barlow Park.

Weipa brothers Seamus King-Smith and Denzel King both took to the field.

The Pride’s final will be played at 4pm on Sunday. You can stream it via Qplus.tv proud and they should be proud of themselves” the passionate treasurer said.

She said the club owed a great deal of gratitude to the sponsors who supported the teams.

“It would have been way too expensive without their support and thanks must go to Rio Tinto Weipa and Weipa Real Estate, as well as our yearly sponsors Embley Contracting, Junction Engineering, Weipa Bowls Club, Capeaccino Crew and Weipa Lions Club.”

Chris Johnson Cup a hit

AROUND 200 kids came together in the Northern Peninsula Area last week to develop their skills at AFL Cape York’s longest-running event, the annual Chris Johnson and Angie Nadredre Cup.

Students from AFL Cape York House and Mount Saint Bernard’s College travelled more than 1000km to attend the four-day game development event.

Weipa had teams in the 12, 14 and 15-years age groups. They were also allowed to play two 16 year olds in their 15-year team.

“They allowed that for the boys teams as well and I think they might be starting to think about Olympics for netball,” Abbey said.

While all teams managed to draw at least one of their games, it came down to the final match for Weipa to register a win, with the 12-years team getting the job done.

“I thought they all did really well and never gave up in any of their matches. They did Weipa

The Weipa Social Netball Club is now gearing up for this Saturday’s Embley Shield junior carnival at the Storm Surge Shelter in Rocky Point.

“We’ll get somewhere between 60 and 80 kids and it’ll be non-stop from about 8am until 1pm,” Abbey said.

“The junior footy finals are on that afternoon so we didn’t want to clash.”

On Thursday, the visiting students were joined by NPA State College and Tagai State College pupils for the annual CJAN Cup, which is AFL Cape York’s longestrunning participation and talent program.

The carnival is used as a selection process for further representative honours.

The AFL Cape York House for Boys team took out the Chris Johnson Cup, while the AFL Cape York House for Girls team retained that Angie Nadredre Cup after a strong on-field performance.

Both winning teams benefited from playing regular football. Pictures and more coverage at www.capeyorkweekly.com.au