Steve McInnes, SAMMNA President

April saw SAMMNA host the return of the AMMNA National Championships at Netball SA Stadium. This was the 35th edition of the Championships which finally occurred some 1,080+ days after the 34th event was held in Melbourne. The event was slightly smaller than expected to occur in 2020 with just 39 teams instead of the projected 49 teams making the trip to Adelaide.

Regardless, of the size or the continued covid threat, I believe that we have had the most successful event we could have possibly had in the current circumstances and there are so many people to thank for making it happen.

To the SAMMNA Board, thank you for your patience with this event, I know it’s constant delay has slowed some of the other things we have had planned for a while now, I am looking forward to now having the time to put into improving all that we do here in SA so we can enhance our operations, player recruitment and represent the state as best as possible moving forward into the next generation of netball

To the ever-changing SA hosting committee that finally got this event done;

• Janine Hook
• Caleb Barnden
• Lachlan Coppick
• Jake Taylor
• Michelle Williams
• Clayton Wells

I cannot thank you enough for the hours of work you have put in to make this event happen for all of us. It has been no small feat to get this off the ground and your efforts will be recognized not only here tonight, but also at our SAMMNA Awards night later in the year.

To our tournament director Janine Hook, the amount of work you do for SAMMNA, AMMNA and this tournament has been just absolutely astounding and we could not have done this without you. You are a rock for us here in SA and we appreciate everything you do for us.

To the SA Squad Management Group, thank you for all your hard work with the squad and your dedication to keeping as much of the group together as possible over the 3 year lead up to this event, your hard work has really shown in the results achieved.

To Netball SA Stadium and their staff thank you for making the arena available to us, it was great to host at the venue we regularly play our M League competition, we look forward to hosing again in the future in the soon to be renovated arena.

To Space Quake thanks for your endeavour and perseverance through the week whilst you were streaming multiple events and were also hit hard by Covid, together we still managed to stream a record breaking 71 games throughout the championships, to multiple platforms making the championships ever so widely accessible, which is incredibly important to us as men’s and mixed athletes in this new era of netball and inclusivity.

To all the volunteers that have helped over the course of the event whether it has been working the door, supporting the umpires, commentating or any other thankless task that you gave your time up to do for us, we do thank you ever so much, this event would not have run as smoothly as it did without you.

To all the coaches, officials and physios that make this game happen for the players and I thank you for your hard work, sacrifice and dedication to continuing to improve the sport and the skill of all our athletes, without you we would not be progressing at the rate we have been.

To anyone else I may have forgotten, or not directly named, please accept my apologies for that, any and all contributions to this event have been very much valued by me and the hosting committee and SAMMNA Board.

Finally, to all the athletes that have been waiting so long and put in so many hours on the training track for this week to finally arrive, I hope you finally got your moment. I know you did your very best to make your state, your team, your families and supporters proud of you. Without your dedication and determination this sport does not exist without you, continue to push each other and drive us forward into the future so that the next generation of men’s and mixed netballers may be the most successful and well known.

Finally having a home event has meant so much to this state and it really showed in the results our teams managed to obtain as well as the individual milestones celebrated across the week and indeed on the final presentation night.

Southern Dragon’s Results:

• Open Men’s: 5th
• Reserve Men’s: 3rd (Lost to Vic in Prelim Final)
• Reserve Mixed: 5th (Lost to NSW in Elimination Final)
• 23 and Under Men’s: 3rd (Lost to Qld in Prelim Final)
• 17 and Under Boys: Runners Up (Lost to Vic in GF)

Individual Southern Dragon Athlete Milestones

25 National League Games:

• Jacob Searle, Caleb Barnden, Jack Hamilton, Jaylon Newchurch, Josh Searle, Louis George-Duif, Ben Ryan and Sam Chamberlain.

50 National League Games:

• Sam Foster and Mark Goreham

Player of the Series Awards:

• Ben Ryan – 3rd Runner Up – 23 & Under Men’s
• Lucas Gulin – Runner Up – 17 & Under Boys
• Corey Haskard – Series MVP – Reserve Mixed
• Tyson Gerrie – Series MVP – Reserve Men’s

Australian Team Selections:

• Freddy Taylor and Jordan Deuterom – 17 & Under Boys
• Aalen Davis and Steven McInnes (Asst. Coach) – 20 & Under Men’s
• Jacob Searle, Nate Wood, Ben Ryan, Saxon Hay, Matt Fowler (Training Partner), Brian Lines (Head Coach) and Lachlan Coppick (Team Manager) – 23 & Under Men

This ever-growing number of awards and Australian selection is testament to the hard work of all the coaches, assistant coaches, team managers and Squad Management Group, to not only keep this core group together through the most trying of circumstances but to come out the other side with results that confirm the new competitiveness and depth now prevalent in the Association.

As we now look to build towards visiting our sister state of WA for the Perth 2023 Championships we must continue to develop our current teams and grow further by securing a 20 and Under Men’s team as well as rebuild our mixed cohort for Open and Reserve competition once again.

I look forward to giving you more regular updates as we build to 2023.