By Matt Fotia
Sprints, Zoom calls and hope for a season in 2020.
That’s what’s been occupying the netball void in the life of Wantirna South premiership star Lauren Woodgate since the coronavirus shutdown halted all EFNL competition this year.
Most of the media attention has focused on the football side of community sport and how much its absence has meant.
But the nation’s netballers are missing their favourite pastime just as much, especially if they’ve been taking to the court every year for over a decade, with many of the EFNL’s netballers having played the sport since they were in the early years of primary school.
Woodgate is not just a Wantirna South – soon to be Boronia – netballer.
The goaler, who has shot well over 1000 goals during her short time in the EFNL, has a storied career in the sport having represented Victoria at mixed netball and indoor netball, along with some time in the VNL (Victorian Netball League) with the Ariels and Boroondara.
Wantirna South celebrate their 2019 victory – Photo Field of View Sports Photography
Woodgate has since traded out multiple training sessions for multiple games per week – across multiple leagues – to help fit around study and work and is well placed to comment on the strength of the EFNL’s competition.
Whilst she believes it is not quite at the level of the Jells Park’s Premier League – which plays hosts to a number of current VNL players and ex-VNL players, it is still a strong standard of netball.
“EFNL is a really strong league, the first couple of seasons we played, that was the strongest it’s been,”
“But last year was still quite strong and I feel that every single team improved as the season went along, so it definitely stacks up with a lot of netball around,”
“Every year it seems like there’s more teams and everyone’s improving.”
With the netball season still a chance of returning in 2020 Woodgate and her teammates are sticking to isolation training regimes to make sure they are ready to go at a moment’s notice, just like their footballing counterparts.
Whilst the premise is the same, the programs themselves differ from the footballers, due to the contrasting nature of the two games.
“For us in particular one of the girls is a Personal Trainer, so she’s given us a running program, so similar to the footballers we are just trying to keep ourselves fit in the hope of a season starting at some point,”
“Personally, I’ve been trying to follow some sort of gym program with whatever I can at home, which is limited but I’m doing the best I can, as well as doing a fair bit of running,”
“Netball running is different to football running, it’s shorter and sharper, so I’ve been trying to focus on sprint training or hill runs, rather than going for a massive long jogs.”
NETBALL | The 2020 Bendigo Bank EFNL Netball Season would've started tonight… Remember to Stay Safe, Stay Indoors and we can all get on court soon! pic.twitter.com/hFjrZUaDRa — Eastern FNL (@footyefl) April 17, 2020
Woodgate’s teammates have been through a bit in the EFNL, having lost three consecutive Grand Finals before finally tasting premiership success in 2019.
But rather than heading out to defend their crown a couple of weeks ago, the girls marked the start of their premiership defence in true isolation style.
“The night we weren’t meant to kick off the season, we all organised to drink wine on Zoom and have a chat,”
“We would’ve all preferred to be out on the netball court, but I won’t complain about having a glass of wine with the girls.”