Australian 21U Squad Announced

Victoria and Western Australia have dominated the strong squad of 21 young netballers announced in the 2007 Australian 21U Squad today, taking up 14 places between the two states.

Australian selectors were impressed with the talent they witnessed over the busy week at the 2006 21U National Netball Championships in Adelaide.

“Victoria and Western Australia have shown to be the two best teams during the championships,” said Australian 21U Coach Lisa Alexander. “They have a lot of talent, height, skill and athletic ability which has been tremendous to watch along with some of the new kids on the block.”

The squad will meet at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra on February 8, 2007 for a four-day training camp and will be preparing for a proposed series against the New Zealand 21U Team in July.

Madison Browne, Melanie Kitchin, Samantha May, Shannon Priestly and Leah Shoard will be making their debut in the national squad.

“Maddy [Browne] has been very consistent with her performance in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy (CBT) this year and it will be very exciting to have a strong dynamic wing attack in the mix,” said Alexander.

“Melanie Kitchin is a bit of a wild card but her performance at junior nationals as the winning captain, and was crucial to their victory, along with her CBT experience with Kestrels have been impressive. She is a very important part of our development of centre players in our national programs.”

“Sam [May] came to a few camps this year and I liked what she put out, solid performances. She is a strong athletic player out on court.”

“Shannon Priestly really put out the performances this week and forced her way into the squad. She has great stretch, reach, height and mobility as a defender that we cannot go past.”

“Leah [Shoard] has performed well this week in goal attack in her limited opportunities and her performance in the CBT has not gone unnoticed, she is one of the most accurate shooters. She’s a short mobile shooter to add to the squad that can also play out at wing attack, which allows versatility.”

“We will be starting to work towards the 2009 World Youth Cup, while also understanding that we need to get the slightly older squad members through into the opens. We want to put pressure on the senior players and keep a healthy competition going on spots in the open squad.”

“I also want to thank Kate Beveridge, Vanessa Ware and Clare McMeniman who are progressing into the opens ranks. They have all represented Australia to distinction,” said Alexander.