{"id":124903,"date":"2026-04-26T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/byroncoasttimes\/?p=124903"},"modified":"2026-04-22T21:31:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:31:04","slug":"dedicated-team-of-netballers-lead-resurgence-after-reaching-state-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/byroncoasttimes\/sport\/dedicated-team-of-netballers-lead-resurgence-after-reaching-state-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Dedicated team of netballers lead resurgence after reaching state final"},"content":{"rendered":"

MURWILLUMBAH Netball Association has celebrated its return to representative competition with its under-18 girls team finishing runner-up at the Queensland state titles.<\/p>\n

The girls played in the final at Townsville and were the first team from the local association to play in a state championship since 2013.<\/p>\n

It is a large scale event with 183 teams from 53 associations contesting 1614 matches across the four days of competition.<\/p>\n

The Murwillumbah team took in players from across the Far North Coast and were coached by Steve Borger and his daughter Lani with assistance from Sacha Kemp and Olivia Stevenson.<\/p>\n

“The players, coaches and the parents play a big part in this team,” Steve Borger said.<\/p>\n

“I think we had a touring group of about 35 people, and we were very proud of how the girls played.<\/p>\n

“This group are dedicated and committed to each other, hopefully the result will give the association a bit of a boost moving forward, too.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Murwillumbah team had plenty of support from parents and coaches. Photo: Supplied.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Flights and accommodation meant the team had to launch a long fundraising effort to get them to the tournament.<\/p>\n

They also went straight back into the top division with 15 teams and only the unbeaten Redcliffe team standing between them and silverware.<\/p>\n

Murwillumbah Netball Association president Hayes McIntosh said the team’s journey to the competition was just as impressive as their performance on court.<\/p>\n

“As an association, it didn’t matter how they finished, just getting there was huge,” McIntosh said.<\/p>\n

“They did raffles, found sponsors, and covered most of their own costs, while the grit they showed on the court was really impressive.<\/p>\n

“The amount of work and effort the girls put in as a group was amazing. They were up against tough competition, but they never backed down.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MURWILLUMBAH Netball Association has celebrated its return to representative competition with its under-18 girls team finishing runner-up at the Queensland state titles. The girls played in the final at Townsville and were the first team from the local association to play in a state championship since 2013. It is a large scale event with 183 […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":124907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-124903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDedicated team of netballers lead resurgence after reaching state final - Byron Coast Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Murwillumbah\u2019s under-18 netballers secure a runner-up finish at the state titles, marking the association's first representative success since 2013.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/byroncoasttimes\/sport\/dedicated-team-of-netballers-lead-resurgence-after-reaching-state-final\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dedicated team of netballers lead resurgence after reaching state final - 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