Wearing the famous navy blue in any contest is something all athletes across our state aspire to.
For five members of the Seymour community, it is about to be their reality.
Ally Black, Corey Jones, Natalie Fletcher, Ashley Chapman and Jai Black are bound for Casey Stadium in Cranbourne on Sunday to take part in the Australian Men’s and Mixed Netball Association’s Australian Championships.
Four of the players are members of the Open Mixed side, while Jai Black is in the under-20 men’s reserve side.
According to Natalie Fletcher, it has been a long process to get to the tournament.
‘‘We went through a series of trials back in September,’’ she said.
‘‘The group of us who were lucky enough to be selected have been training together since October.
‘‘We’ve played some trial games to get ready, so we should be in really good form going into the tournament.’’
The teams will play in nine games before finals, with the tournament spanning across a week from Easter Sunday.
Fletcher said the entire group was starting to feel the excitement.
‘‘For a lot of us, this is our first time playing for our state,’’ she said.
‘‘There is so much incredible talent in our sides. We’ve worked really hard to get to where we are, we’ve gelled really well as a group and we expect to be able to play our best netball when the tournament begins.’’