As we head into the New Year, we are pleased to announce the last of our State Teams with the 20s squad whittled down to the final 12 who will contest for the title at nationals 2021 in Adelaide.
Coach Dennis Napara and his support officials have spent weeks scouring the schools program and looking down the player pathway to clinch a mix of new and exiting talent to his list. “My selection team sat down after weeks of deliberations to reflect on the final list and it wasn’t until then that we realised the huge potential for this side. Our shooting line up has a good mix of athleticism and netball smarts. Our middie combos are true to our NSW style of pace and pressure and our defensive line have range and speckie in the way they take the game on. There’s lots of work to do on harnessing talent already there in droves, and turning potential into actual, but that’s the best part of my job.” Napara said.
Napara spoke of his dual role in mobilising talent and winning a championship, recalling success in this division that he led. “As a coach in the age divisions you have half an eye on our next big things in netball individually, and making sure I’m developing players of the ilk that could one day play for opens or aussies. The rest of my attention is on team success and the overall goal of how to win a championship. As a coaching group we think we not only have some future stars spotted, but a team that with hard work could get us back the title in this division.” Napara added.
President Clare McCabe was pleased to see the final team listed for the state program, and reflected on the overall program connection points. “To see the player pathway starting to work like it should is making talent scouting easier but selection decisions much tougher. The 20s team was in need of new blood after our graduates of yesteryear are now up in our 23s program. Some of that was backfilled with our 17s moving through to this side, others we tapped into our pathway programs to top up talent. What we are left with is our strongest 20s list in several years. And we have high hopes for them.
It wasn’t so long ago the names on this 20s list were folks like Byron and Edwards who made it to the top of their sport. I have no doubt this team will produce some future household names in men’s netball if they step up and into the high performance elements of the state program.” McCabe said. With all teams now finalised for NSW, the coaches are in full swing with phase 1 of preseason completed and all players in phase 2 as they head into the new year.
The MNNSW 20 and Under team for 2021 are:
- Louis Anderson
- James Arrow
- Michael Campbell
- Adrian Cazzoli
- Rohan Chretien
- Jaggah Fonofeui-Hausia
- Ethan Holt
- Zaid Isaacs
- Max Minutillo
- Ratchaphak Prekpanarut
- Charlie Rigby
- Jack Titmuss
Coach Dennis Napara
Assistant Coach Annalisa Di Bella
Manager Raelene Turner