www.ntnews.com.au Northern Territory News, Tuesday, January 5, 2010 — 35

PU

B:

NTNE-WS-DA-TE:5-JAGE:35 CO-LO-R: C-M Y-K

SPORT

Territory’s shooting ahead

INSTRUCT: Storm coach Stacey West rallies her troops

IT was a year of newhorizons for the NT’sbiggest women’s sport. Ayear of growth andchange has set solidfoundations for netball tobuild on heading into thenew decade as ANDREWALOIA reports.

HOME, sweet home. That wasthe feeling when the gateswere finally opened on themulti-million dollar newhome for Territory netball atMarrara in May.

It was a lot of years in themaking and a lot more inwaiting, but rather than putup with a cracking, dilapi-dated complex in Parap,players young and old couldenjoy one of the nation’sfinest outdoor facilities.

BUT it was indoor that theTerritory made a real im-pression on the nationalgame, achieving a recordeighth-place finish in theAustralian Netball League.

If guts and determination iswhat defines NT sporting cul-ture then the award for No. 1tenacious outfit in black,white and ochre would haveto go to the Storm.

The Territory’s secondseason in the competition willbe better remembered fortheir near misses ratherthan the three wins theyactually scored.

An opening round winagainst Canberra, home tri-umph over Tasmania andrecord thrashing of Singa-pore, in Territory netball’sfirst ever internationalmission, were overshadowedby heartbreaking losses toSouth Australia, NSW Wara-tahs, Queensland and West-ern Australia.

The find of the season wasteenager Jess Moller, who notonly earned her first seniorcap for the NT but went on tostar in every minute shegraced the court.

There was a New ZealandOlympic basketballer, Kate

McMeekan Roscoe, whoturned out to be a fairlyhandy netballer — going on toplay a leading role in PINTS’Darwin Netball League grandfinal win.

Tina Way took on captaincyof the side as if born to it and

was never short of supportwith Natasha Munns, JodieSefton and Katherine Hollisplaying leading roles.

Plenty of class was im-ported in the sharp-shootingform of Erin McCarthy, light-ning quick Kim Klaver and

sturdy Samantha Poolman.

They all combined to givefoundation coach and Territ-ory netball icon Stacey West afond farewell in Singaporewith the experienced NT In-stitute of Sport coach relocat-ing to Melbourne.

WEST’S departure wasn’tthe only change at the top in2009 with NT netball boss SueChilman also moving on.

But diligence in search ofreplacements has seen thesport recruit well.

Successful business womanand former government ad-viser Sue Shearer takes overas NT netball chief executivewhile hugely experiencedNew South Wales coachDianne Brown takes overfrom West.

ON court 2009 was an un-predictable year. Be it theTerritory Storm or PINTSDarwin Netball League side.

Tracy Village had its prem-iership hat-trick aspirationsscuppered by big seasonmover and shaker Nightcliff

at the first finals hurdle.

Nightcliff was true to itsword, going one better thanit’s first season back in thetop flight in 2008 to make it tothe preliminary final stage ofthe competition.

PINTS’ topsy-turvy seasonwas best defined by its finalsform. Beaten convincingly byUni Hoggies in the first weekonly to bounce back againstNightcliff and eventually rail-road Hoggies in the grandfinal. Hoggies may have beenbeaten at the final stage forthe second year in a row butthe ladies in pink had plentyto celebrate, easily winningthe minor premiership andboasting the league’s best andfairest Shannon Millar.

AND Alice Springs provedno different with the Central-ian’s emerging shock winnersof the NT Link Open NetballChampionships. FederalBonanni were crowned AliceSprings Netball Leaguechampions after trouncingMemo Rover by 10 goals.

AUSSIE DUTIES: Darwin’s Heather Langham (in pink) represented Australia in the Women’s Champions Trophy at Sydney Olympic Park

Biggest littlesport left

its stamp ona huge year

PROUD traditions were main-tained and nightmarish hoo-doos broken in just anotheroutstanding year for thebiggest little sport on the Terr-itory landscape. NorthernTerritory News hockey re-porter ANDREW ALOIA offersa snapshot look at what madenews in 2009.

THE A-TEAM

MR T was nowhere in sight, butthere was record Australia repre-sentation for Northern Territoryhockey players.

HEADING the A-Team wasKookaburra Des Abbott, racingpast 50 international caps on theway to playing a hero’s hand inAustralia’s Champions Trophy tri-umph.

THE hard-luck story of the yearwas that of Abbott’s cousin JoelCarroll. Finally earning a nationalcall-up, the Nightcliff Uni Tigersproduct went a long way to makinga place in the Aussie backline all hisown. And just when a place at thebiggest tournament of the year washis for the taking, a bizarre trainingincident saw him out injured on theeve of the Champions Trophy. His-tory will show he missed out on agold medal.

THE Territory was representedon the women’s internationalhockey stage for the first time in twoyears with teenager HeatherL a n g h a m f a s t - t r a c k e d t oHockeyroo duties.

Only a matter of months afterwinning her first Australian juniorcall-up the St Marys product foundherself marking some of the world’sbest on tour in South Africa.

And the Top Ender proved a hit,going on to feature in Australia’ssilver medal Champions Trophycampaign.

In the meantime, she also played aleading role in the Australianunder-21 side’s fifth place finish atthe Junior World Cup.

METEORIC rises were the flavourof the year with Leon Haywardwooing national selectors. The War-atahs goalkeeper was instrumentalin Australia’s bronze medal finish at

the Junior World Cup. But that isnot where he stopped, going on toplay for Australia ‘A’ and tourGermany with the Australian in-door side despite never playing theversion of the sport seriously before.And it all started with a gold medalwin at the Australian YouthOlympic Festival in Sydney.

ALSO enjoying Burras glory wasAdrian ‘‘AJ’’ Lockley who was partof the leadership group in AustralianWorld Cup success. Lockley’s all-action performances were a hall-mark of both Australian and NTStingers sides.

JONATHAN Peris may havemissed out on a World Cup but buthe did still enjoy the fruits ofsuccess, playing in the AussiesYouth Olympic win.

That elusive Australian call-upnever came for the versatile RobbieDuguid, but ‘‘the professor’’ im-pressed enough to be included in thefinal selection camp in Darwin.Duguid took massive stridestowards Australian selection afterproving capable of captaining theNT Stingers Australian HockeyLeague (AHL) side on debut.

LEADING the next crop of greenand gold-clad NT players is SarahPaul who toured England with thenational schoolgirls side.

GRINNING WINNERS

IT was 29 years in the making, butfinally Waratahs claimed a DarwinMen’s Hockey League premiership.

After starting the season slowly,bottom of the table after four

rounds, the red and white went on ahistory-making run.

In the end it was a combination ofluck, hard work and sublime skillthat got them over the line in a 2-1win over minor premiers NightcliffUni Tigers.

The man Waratahs had to thankwas a dreadlocked midfielder theycall ‘‘Hannibal’’, Xavier Harvey,scoring the deciding goal in a tightdecider.

IT was all one way traffic in thewomen’s league with the Tigerswrapping up an unbeaten seasonwith a 3-0 grand final win over Tahs.

EVERYONE enjoyed a winningfeeling in 2009 with Commerce-PINTmen’s side ending the longestlosing streak in Darwin HockeyLeague history, downing Waratahs

3-1 in the opening round to end afour year drought.

TWO years and 22 games sincetheir last win, the Territory Stingerstasted triumph once more in theAHL.

It took a Des Abbott golden-goal inTasmania to seal a dramatic 3-2 winover Canberra. The Stingers wenton to finish the competition sixth.

THE NT Pearls women’s AHL sidehad to wait until the second periodof golden-goal extra time in the lastmatch of its season to earnvictory. And it was cult favourite,US international Lauren Powleythat left her adopted Aussie homewith a gift, nailing her only goal ofthe season to seal the win and aseventh place finish.