Region Three: West Central West

The 2023 West Central West Regional League took place over one weekend at Dubbo Sportsworld with 8 teams and over 90 of the best netball athletes from around the West Central West region competing against each other. 
The first day of the weekend of the Netball NSW Regional League competition consisted of each of 2 divisions; Division 1 – Bathurst, Dubbo White, Dubbo Blue and Orange and Division 2 – Forbes, Lithgow, Mudgee and Parkes go head-to-head against one another in their division playing a total of 5 rounds each.
On the Sunday, the 2 Divisions started the day finishing of their last game of rounds before moving onto final rounds based on their performance and ladder rankings. 

In Division 2, Mudgee held the top of the table followed then by Forbes, Parkes and Lithgow. 
The semi finals match was determined by the ladder and 1st vs 4th being Mudgee and Lithgow took it out to secure a spot in the Grand Final. Mudgee played strong as a team and ended up coming out in front of Lithgow with a 50-19 point win. 
In the other Division 2 semi-final, Forbes and Parkes had a tight battle in the first half of the game with it being anyone’s game to win. Forbes outshone their performance and taking the scoreboard out in front making them gain 42 goals to Parkes 27. 
Our Division 2 grand final between Mudgee and Forbes was another game down to the wire with only 3 points separating the teams at half time, Mudgee’s team performance lead them to hold onto the lead over Forbes by a 5 point win for the title. Whilst Parkes remained determined against Lithgow and ended up in 3rd place with a score of 42-20. 

Division 1 saw Orange remain almost undefeated throughout the 2 days of minor rounds leaving them on top of the ladder. Bathurst followed close behind drawing in a game against Orange and  losing only 1 match in the minor rounds, followed by Dubbo Blue and Dubbo White rounding out the top four teams headed into the final’s series.
The first semi-final match up was between Orange and Dubbo White. Although Dubbo White put up a good fight, Orange drew a little further away each quarter leading them to a win of 67-18 taking them to the Grand Final. The second semi-final match saw Bathurst and Dubbo Blue teams go head-to-head, fighting for their spot in the Grand Final. Only one team could come out victorious with Bathurst taking the win by an astonishing close win 39-34.
In the 3rd place play-off for Division 1, there was a classic case of turning good defence into scoring opportunities for both teams. Dubbo Blue took the lead early on and held strong leading to a massive 59 - 36 win over Dubbo White. 
In the Division 1 Grand Final, Bathurst proved why they were meant to be in the Grand Final with coming back in front during the second quarter leading by 2 points. It was a very tight and intense game between Orange and Bathurst with the score evening after each centre. Orange was able to pull away with a few turnovers to extend their 1 point lead to 5 points, winning the game 44-39 becoming the West Central West Netball NSW Regional League Champions for 2023.

Netball NSW Regional League is also not possible without the team of dedicated umpires officiating matches over the weekend, thank you to all the team in white and a special thank you to the Umpire Allocators Michael Rudd, Shelly Hutchinson and Michelle Ensor who worked with the umpires throughout the competition. The West Central West region would like to congratulate Lynne Sluiter from Dubbo Netball Association who was awarded with her National B Badge over the weekend.

West Central West Netball NSW Regional League Coaches also had the opportunity to access invaluable mentoring during the first week, thank you to Linda McLeod, who was on hand to offer assistance to Coaches.

Regional Manager Brooke Berg