City West Falcons have secured top ranking in the Victorian Netball League championship division finals and coach Marg Lind is predicting success well beyond this season.
The Falcons remain undefeated, four games clear on top of the second-tier division 1 ladder, and have wrapped up a top-two finish in the 19-and-under division to ensure all three teams go into the finals with double chances.
“It is nice to get a double chance for all three teams,” Lind told Star Weekly.
“We’ve got a bit of depth at the club and next year will be interesting because I think there could be some players who miss out at Falcons, in terms of selection, because we have got such good depth.
“We’ve got quite a few young ones coming up and that’s something we’re going to have to deal with at the end of this season.
“It’s a credit to what is happening out here with netball in the western suburbs.”
The west has been a strong breeding ground for the VNL and the Falcons have made it a focus to tap into it as much as they can to regularly bolster their stocks.
This is no overnight phenomenon but the byproduct of years of hard work nurturing talent long before the Falcons were even settled in the west.
“There’s been a lot of investment in the west from a number of people in the last 10 to 12 years and that’s really paying off,” Lind said.
“The playing standard over this side of the city has increased two-fold and I think that’s why Falcons have been able to have a bit of depth … netball in the west is thriving at the moment.
“That’s reflected in the depth at our club and also other western suburbs clubs.”
Lind is a keen observer of the game in the west. She coaches the netball program at Maribyrnong College and takes in a lot of junior netball in search of the next big thing.
She likes what she sees from the next generation.
“I was out at a kids’ tournament in Waverley and the Altona teams did really well,” Lind said. “When you’ve got young kids from Altona winning tournaments on the other side of the city, that’s a real positive.”
The Falcons hope to be 80 per cent made-in-the-west in the not too distant future.
The club is offering two scholarships to players from the Altona Netball Association for the first time this season.
“We’re trying to get kids who are really keen on going along the pathway to Falcons,” Lind said. “We’ve got a massive selection in the 11-and-under, 13-and-under and 15-and-under that will be coached by the Falcons’ coaches.
“We’re going to promise two of those kids in the 15-and-under age group a guaranteed scholarship next year at the club.
“It’s a big call from us but it shows we’ve got a lot of faith in the area,” Lind said, adding that while the Falcons hope to predominantly showcase western suburbs youngsters, the club will not turn its back on country kids.
“The longer we base ourselves in the west, the more we seem to get kids from this area, but I always hope we keep that rural relationship alive,’ Lind said. “You always keep an eye out for rural kids because they don’t get the opportunity.
“We’ve got girls from Bendigo and Echuca and they’re great, they’re so valuable to the club because they’re committed and they’re top people.”
After bolting down first place in the finals with a hard-fought 54-51 win over Geelong Cougars last Wednesday, the Falcons will play a dead rubber against North East Blaze tonight at the State Netball and Hockey Centre in the lead-up to the start of finals next week.
