COFFS Harbour Netball Association’s representative teams have prepared for the upcoming State Titles by playing in their biggest home event of the year.

Coffs Harbour Netball Association hosted its annual representative carnival which attracted other associations from across the North Coast and Northern NSW.

Coffs Harbour Netball Association president Tanya Slaviero said it was their biggest carnival of the year.

“It’s our biggest event of the year by far, and we hosted 57 teams and had over 1600 people here on the day,” she said.

“We had sixteen associations attend from across the North Coast and out west to Narrabri and Inverell.”

Slaviero said the representative carnival was great preparation for the upcoming State Titles.

“It prepares the players for the state titles, and each association gets the opportunity to host a representative carnival,” she said.

“It’s preparation for the senior state titles in Newcastle on the June long weekend, and the junior state titles in early July in Sydney.

“We have teams in each age division, under 12s, 13s, and 14s at the juniors, and under 15s, 17s, and opens at seniors.

“Today was more about game combinations and match fitness, as they play three-day events at state, and at this one-day carnival they play games which prepares them for that.”

Under 15s representative players Lara Thompson and Evie Martin are two of the Coffs Harbour Netball Association players preparing to take part in the upcoming State Titles.

Thompson said she was really looking forward to playing at her first state titles.

“I’ve never played at a junior state titles, as we had two years of COVID and then last year it got washed out, so our rep team has never played at state,” she said.

Playing as a goalkeeper, Martin said she loved the defensive side of the game.

“I love defending and love taking intercepts and making contact and contending for the ball,” she said.

As they prepared to head to the State Titles, Slaviero said Coffs Harbour netball was in a healthy state.

“It’s very healthy, as we have increased our numbers after COVID, and our juniors started their season yesterday and we have over 300 players,” she said.

“We have 34 senior teams playing on a Wednesday night, and for the first time ever we have a mixed competition on Thursday nights.”

By Aiden BURGESS