Region Two: Hunter and Central Coast

The 2023 Hunter and Central Coast Regional League is the pinnacle competition for the region and took place over one weekend at Niagara Park Stadium, with 200 athletes in 19 teams from across the Hunter and Central Coast Region, representing 12 Associations across 4 Divisions.  This was the first time the event had been held over one full weekend instead of multiple Sundays and also the first time at Niagara Park Stadium.  The feedback was overwhelmingly positive for the new Saturday/Sunday format and athletes, coaches, officials and spectators all had high praise for the venue.  Luckily we were indoors so the rainy weather did not effect us.

Grading for Regional League Division 1 was almost impossible with 9 teams nominating for the top Division.  Splitting the top 6 teams was not an option to make two separate Divisions with the quality of players within each team.  It was decided to work it out on court and Division 1 consisting of 9 teams would play one full round then split into Division 1 and Division 2 for finals, based on ladder position.
Even this remained a battle with the 4 middle teams being on equal ladder points for the last few rounds.  In the end Division 1 became Newcastle Team 1, Maitland Team 1, Gosford Team 1 and Woy Woy Team 1 who were all ranked in 1st to 4th respectively.  5th to 9th position became Division 2.

During the Division 1 semi finals Newcastle defeated Woy Woy, while Maitland and Gosford battled for their grand final spot.  Maitland had their eye on the prize after missing a grand final berth in 2022.  The experience on court from an undefeated Newcastle Team 1 for the duration of the competition held strong and they came out triumphant over Maitland Team 1 29 – 18 to be crowned the Division 1 winners, a title they have now held for multiple years.  Woy Woy Team 1 came in 3rd place defeating Gosford Team 1 in the playoff for third and 4th.

With Division 2 now set, we had two closely fought semi finals matches.  Charlestown Team 1 against Callaghan Team 1, both teams having limited players throughout the competition had to dig deep till the very end.  Callaghan coming out victorious and heading to the grand final.  Our other semi final saw the younger teams of Newcastle Team 2 and Gosford Team 2, who both had to play in a Division against very experienced players, in a nail biting game.  1 point split the two teams with Newcastle Team 2 winners in the end.
Our Division 2 grand final was another game down to the wire with one point separating the teams at half time, Callaghan Team 1’s  experienced players holding on to the lead over Newcastle Team 2’s young future starts by 2 points to win the title.


In Divisions 3, all 5 teams were closely matched with tight score lines during the round games on Day 1 and Day 2.  By the end of the rounds Westlakes Team 1 were top of the ladder, closely followed by Charlestown Team 2, only 2 points behind.  Despite some close games with the top two teams our 3rd, 4th and 5th positions of Maitland Team 2, Cessnock Team 1 and Lakeside Team 1 were on 6 – 8 points behind the leaders.  Westlakes and Charlestown were not giving up their opportunity for a grand final spot though and both won their semi finals by over 10 goals.
We saw another hotly contested grand final game with Westlakes Team 1 coming through victorious 25 to 17 over Charlestown Team 2.

Division 4 saw Cessnock Team 2, Callaghan Team 2 and Kurri Kurri Team 1 as the teams to beat and all separated by 4 points from 1st to 3rd respectively on the ladder, followed by Woy Woy Team 2 (4th) and Port Stephens Team 1 (5th).  Cessnock had a convincing win for their semi finals match against Woy Woy, while Kurri Kurri who had lost to Callaghan twice in the competition already, came up with the win that counted for their semi final to make it to the Grand Final.  
With one win during the rounds each, Cessnock and Kurri Kurri continued their local derby on court in a game that saw the both coaches with skyrocketing heart rates.  In the end Kurri Kurri Team 2 came away with a hard fought 2 point win to be the Division 4 winners over Cessnock Team 2.

The Hunter and Central Coast Region’s Team White officiated over 92 games and signalled 4124 goals scored over the weekend.  Our Regional Allocations Team of Monique Smith (Head), Kath Styant and Alex Brown allocated and mentored the 25 umpires that took part in the competition.
Congratulations to Noah Stephenson for attaining his National B Badge.
Our grand final umpires were:
Division 1: Ellie Taylor and Abbie Holloway
Division 2: Jess Alexanda and Makayla Caulfield
Division 3: Rachel Shallows, Amanda Flick and Reserve Cassandra Conway
Division 4: Naomi Myers, Mia Squires and Reserve Cassandra Swalwell.

Chris Lindus from Maitland Myotherapy and Sports Injuries held our players and umpires together for the weekend with the least amount of injuries we’ve seen at a Regional League competition to date.

During the Regional League Competition a regional team is selected from the registered athletes aged between 16 – 22 to represent the Hunter and Central Coast Region at the Regional State Cup at Netball Central in October.  The Hunter and Central Coast team are reining champs from 2022.
Over 130 eligible athletes opted to be viewed for the team and selectors Sarah Bowen, Jade Nicholl (RSC Coach) and Nat Hilder (RSC Coach) had a difficult time selecting from the quality athletes attending.  The official announcement of the team will come in a few weeks along with the Hunter and Central Coast’s umpire chosen to attend the Regional State Cup by the Regional Allocations Team.

Thank you to all athletes for an amazing weekend of netball to watch, the coaches and managers for your tireless efforts, the Associations for your support and work behind the scenes getting the teams to the event, the Regional Allocations Team and Team White for your control of the games, Chris Lindus for keeping everyone healthy, Niagara Park Stadium and staff for the excellent venue and looking after us all, Kath Styant for preparing the venue, Sam Rumbel and Kylie Henderson for helping run the Regional League event and to the parents and spectators who brought the athletes and the atmosphere.  It was a fantastic weekend of high quality netball!

Regional Manager - Kirsten Clarke