25th edition of the Koori Netball Tournament, with junior, women's and mixed divisions celebrating 25 years of First Nations netball.
The Koori Netball Tournament returns to the Charlestown Netball Complex this weekend, Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October, for its 25th anniversary. It's a big one this year — a quarter-century of First Nations netball, with play spread across junior, women's and mixed divisions. The Charlestown Netball Association runs it with support from Netball NSW and the NSW Office of Sport, and it's grown into one of the state's largest celebrations of First Nations netball, a regular fixture on the sporting calendar that draws Aboriginal communities from across New South Wales. Nearly 1,000 Aboriginal netballers take part.
It started back in 1999 with just eight senior women's teams, so seeing it reach 25 years is something of a milestone. Netball NSW First Nations Program Manager Courtney Goolagong says it's about more than the competition, bringing communities together through a shared love of the game. Acacia Elers, a Mayfield netballer recently selected in the Black Swans program, puts it another way: for her, it's a chance to reconnect with family and rediscover the fun of playing away from high-performance pressures. That side of it — the family and community coming together — is as much a part of the weekend as the netball itself.
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The schedule runs across both days. Saturday kicks off with the opening ceremony at 8.15am, and Sunday matches start from 8am, with divisional finals from 12.30pm and presentations following on after play. The venue is the Charlestown Netball Complex on Bula Street in Charlestown. Team entry is A$250.
