The Western Border Netball Association has never seen a player exhibit such sustained excellence in its competition over such a long period of time and it has hard to see anyone emulating those feats in our lifetime and beyond. And on Sunday, Donna Denton was honoured on two fronts – claiming her eighth A grade association best & fairest title and being inducted into Western Border Netball Association life membership. Her first best & fairest came as a teenager in 1994 and then of course there has been a triumphant return as a premiership State League player from her time studying in Adelaide. She returned to Millicent in 2000 and has won eight best & fairest accolades in the ensuing 15 seasons. There are a couple of runner-up performances in that time, as well as time out of the game to have children and a serious knee injury – it just doesn’t get better than that. Denton won the 2014 count by four votes – pipping team mate and now coach Lisa Duldig for the second consecutive season. She was best on court in seven games across the 17 round season and polled in 14 games. That performance also secured her a share of the Most Consistent award. The life membership was arguably overdue and also inevitable and while her on court achievements alone would have warranted the honour, Denton has also been a hard working administrator of the game as registration officer for many years, as well as coordinating Millicent’s Net Set Go program, the netball equivalent of Auskick. She also stepped back from A grade coaching years, handing the reins to Duldig, a player she cultivated as a junior, to take on the 13 & under age group and start passing on her expertise to a new generation of Western Border stars. Denton was, not surprisingly, named in 2014 Deakin University Team of the Year, alongside Saints team mates Duldig, Hayley Dunn and debutante Alex Walker. In fact, it was a team of many new faces with Walker joined by other first time selections in Casterton Sandford’s Ellen Brewster, South’s Alyssa Boylan, West’s Carly Trevilyan and North’ Abbey Duncan. The remaining two selections were multiple team of the year inclusions – West’s Lisa Cram and North coach Audine Bryant. Duldig was named coach of the year after not missing a beat since taking over from Denton and guiding the Saints to another undefeated season. Overall, the Western Border Netball Association count was dominated by South Gambier – taking out five of the seven individual honours and finishing runner-up in one other grade. And while in the final wash up, the Demons would be disappointed to have only two teams in premiership deciders this weekend, after six of their seven teams made finals, to take home the vast majority of the silverware from Casterton and also be named the most improved and the champion club for 2014 was some consolation. South Gambier’s winner were Toni Sims (A Reserve); Kelsie Grubb (B Grade); Lorelie Ellis (C Grade); Olivia Dukalskis (15 & under) and Jordyn Adams (13 & Under) – Megan Hein also finished runner-up to star Casterton Sandford defender Tayla Guthrie in the 17 & under count, with East’s Rachael Hines also claiming runner-up honours in that grade. Brianna Walters won the Best Under 21 player in A grade, while Casterton Sandford won the Most Disciplined Club.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 22:00:23 +0000
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