The Courier | VERSATILE state league netballer Laura McDonald has been added to Ballarat’s interleague campaign.
McDonald played for Lake Wendouree at the weekend, making her eligible for Ballarat Football Netball League selection ahead of its AFL Victorian Country Championship battle with Bendigo at Eastern Oval on Saturday.
The Sovereigns championship division player has experience alongside fellow Sovereign Jordyn Bibby (North Ballarat City) in goals, Erin Riley (Redan) in defence and with Sovereigns Kara Hart (Lake Wendouree) and Lauren Atkinson (East Point) through the centre-court.
McDonald’s inclusion boosts Ballarat’s VNL championship division player count to four to complement a string of Regional State League and former VNL players.
Bendigo was yet to confirm its squad at the time of print, but Ballarat coach Kate McMahon had confidence her players had the depth to adapt to anything thrown at them on court.
“We’ve focused on combinations and our ability to transition from defence to offence. We have a chance to do that really well,” McMahon said.
“We’ve got a lot of versatility.
“There are good netball players in this netball team.”
Ballarat used last week’s interleague training sessions to share ideas on combinations and work on movement and patterns.
Players are moving into more intense scratch matches to test their game this week.
OPEN TEAM: Georgia Cann, captain (Sebastopol), Lauren Atkinson, Lauren Jew (East Point), Melanie Allen, Molly Boyle, Kara Hart, Laura McDonald (Lake Wendouree), Jordyn Bibby, Stacey McCartin (North Ballarat City), Emma Henry, Erin Riley (Redan)
Coach: Kate McMahon
Assistant coach: Kirsty Walsh
Team manager: Narelle Perkins