Koori Netball Tournament hits 25 years in Charlestown

Charlestown has a big sporting weekend ahead, and it is not your usual local fixture. The Koori Netball Tournament is back for its 25th edition, taking over the Charlestown Netball Complex across Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October, and it has come a long way from where it started.

To get a sense of the scale, you only have to look back to 1999, when the tournament began with just eight senior women's teams. Twenty-five years on, it has grown into one of the largest celebrations of First Nations netball in the state, with junior, women's and mixed divisions all in the mix. It pulls players, families and supporters from across metropolitan, regional and remote New South Wales right here to the Hunter, which is no small feat for a tournament that started so modestly.

The weekend is run by the Charlestown Netball Association, with backing from Netball NSW and the NSW Office of Sport, and it is built as much on community as it is on competition. Netball NSW First Nations Program Manager Courtney Goolagong has spoken about how the event brings mob and communities together through a shared love of netball, giving people a chance to reconnect with family and friends, celebrate culture and walk away with some lasting memories. Beyond the games, she has also pointed to the tournament's role in opening doors for the next generation of First Nations athletes, coaches and umpires, so it is as much about what comes after the weekend as what happens on the court.

For the players, the appeal is often simpler. Mayfield netballer Acacia Elers, who was recently picked up into the Black Swans program after narrowly missing out the season before, is one of the names to watch. She has described the weekend as a chance to reconnect with family and rediscover the simple joy of playing netball, away from the grind and pressure of high-performance sport. It is that balance — the competitive edge alongside the family catch-up — that keeps people coming back year after year.

If you are planning to head down, here is how the weekend shapes up. Saturday opens with the Opening Ceremony at 8:15am, with competition following straight after. Sunday gets going from 8:00am, with the finals running from 12:30pm to 2:30pm and presentations held once the finals have wrapped up. It is set up to be a family-friendly weekend, so it works as well for a casual look-in as it does for anyone following the netball properly.

Behind the scenes, the tournament carries some decent local backing, with Lake Macquarie Private Hospital and Greater Bank among the main sponsors. And if you have a whistle in you, the association is still looking for referees to help out the visiting teams, so there is a role there if you would rather be part of the action than watching from the sidelines. For the latest updates, the association keeps its Facebook and Instagram pages current, which is the place to check before you head down. Either way, it is a fixture on the First Nations sporting calendar that has turned a modest start into a genuine Hunter tradition.