Growing up in tiny Bamawm in north-central Victoria, Sharelle McMahon’s first experience of community netball was from the sidelines, watching her mum Olive. The memories of her earliest emotions as a super-keen six-year-old debutante are also vivid, still.
“The joy and the love is what I felt,’’ recalls the former Diamonds’ great, now Melbourne Vixens Assistant Coach. “I was desperate to get onto the court from a very, very early age, so I always loved netball, and I just always loved the feeling that I had around a netball court.
“And I remember that from being a young kid: that sense of fun, the sense of belonging and a sense of purpose with a group of people, whether you’re celebrating it from the sidelines or actually playing.’’
Having graduated from Association level to representing Lockington Bamawm United in the Heathcote District Football Netball League, a favourite McMahon moment came in her debut A-grade season as a freakishly talented 14-year-old alongside her big sister Kate.
A Grand Final. An upset victory over local powerhouse Cohuna, who had been confident enough to have pre-ordered their latest commemorative t-shirts.
“The entire town was around the court for that game. Then we ran a (victory) lap of the footy oval,’’ says McMahon, smiling as she recalls the day, and the enduring sense of community. “The story’s probably been embellished over the years but the fact they’d already had their Premiership t-shirts printed is my favourite part.’’
Around that time, a few hundred kilometres away at the Somerville Netball Club on the Mornington Peninsula, a young, tall and gangly Bianca Chatfield had just discovered a good way to hang out with her friends after school: netball training.
In games, she was plonked under the post - mostly as goal shooter, sometimes at keeper. Royal blue pleated skirt. Yellow polo shirt. Dark ponytail. Awful lot to learn.
“I certainly didn’t take to it straight away!’’ laughs the decorated defender, who would share the Vixens’ captaincy with McMahon and play 246 games for the club and the Melbourne Phoenix, as well as 59 Tests for Australia.
“The advantage of being tall was that if you missed a goal you could rebound it, so you didn’t necessarily have to be overly accurate and I certainly wasn’t. And I remember I used to get a fright every time someone would throw me a hard pass, so it took me a while just to get my head around trying to catch the ball, let alone be able to throw it.’’
Yet the netball court was the first place Chatfield felt positive about her height, and the environment each Saturday at Jubilee Park in Frankston provided a sense of connection and a level of care that remains a hallmark of community sport.
She paraphrases a famous quote from former US soccer star Mia Hamm about the “little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back’’. That, in many ways, is Chatfield, who would experience moments of stress, pain and anxiety during her elite career but, as an 11-year-old, was always in the moment.
“When you’re a kid you get to play and you don’t think about anything else. For me it’s probably the most peaceful and the most calm that you ever are, when you’re out there playing for the fun of it, and for the love of it, as a kid.’’
COVID-19 has put all of that on hold for now, although NSW this week was the latest state to announce a return to community sport from July 1. In Victoria, outdoor training for groups of 20 was cleared to resume last Monday, as Netball Victoria continues to advocate for a State Government roadmap to resume competition - potentially from mid-July.
The delayed Suncorp Super Netball season will now start on August 1, but Netball Victoria CEO Rosie King acknowledges the lack of clarity for those among the sport’s grassroots, with country and metropolitan leagues still awaiting the green light.
“We are aware that there are a lot of conversations happening in the netball community about whether or not to pursue a season in 2020,’’ says King, whose organisation has weathered the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic better than most.
“Whilst we know that there’s a lot of uncertainty in the system at the moment in terms of what people can and can’t do, we believe that now's the time more than ever that we’ve got to get back to basics and enjoy the game just for the love of it. We can’t waste the opportunity when it comes.’’
Or, in social media language, #PlayForTheLove, with recent Victoria University research finding fun and enjoyment to be the No.1 motivation for sports participation among adults, and girls in their mid-teens, one of the groups most likely to walk away.
“Now more than ever is the time when we need community sport, because even though we may not have crowds, the team is their crowd,’’ says King. “They don’t need people on the sidelines, they need each other.’’
McMahon, now a mother of two, was reminded this week at the Vixens’ first group training session of the human connection she had missed while limited to virtual contact during the months in lockdown. Lockington Bamawm United’s most famous daughter believes that, at every level, any form of netball in 2020 in better than none at all.
“We should keep remembering from a community sport perspective how important it is across all the generations, from the kids right through,’’ says McMahon. “My grandparents would always come and watch me play, and they would work in the canteen.
“Having the opportunity to experience that sense of connection at a time like this will be really important to the community’s health, and also to the individual’s health within that.’’
Written by Linda Pearce
