Lisa Dennis
Magpie netball co-coach and former Super Netball, Commonwealth Games and World Cup elite netballer Fiona Fowler conducted a free school holiday clinic for talented local netballers in the Mount Alexander Shire at Castlemaine’s Wesley Hill Netball Complex last Wednesday.
The day saw around 40 netballers ranging from 15 & Under through to 17 & Under enjoy a number of drills and receive tips on their game from the respected elite Aussie netballer, before putting those new found skills to the test in a series of practice games.
Fiona Fowler (née Themann) is a former Suncorp Super Netballer with the Adelaide Thunderbirds and Collingwood Magpies.
With dual nationality Fiona has also represented Scotland on the court and brings experience to the netball fraternity in the Castlemaine region having played at the highest levels including the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2015 Netball World Cup.
Fowler and Castlemaine Magpie co-coach former Victorian Men’s netballer and long time coach Gary Cooke recently coached two of their Castlemaine Magpie netball senior sides – A Grade and A Reserve – to finals in the 2022 Bendigo Football Netball League (BFNL) season.
This was the first time the Castlemaine club had been represented in netball finals in a decade.
Fiona said she wants to share her knowledge and skills to help develop the next generation and was delighted to welcome netballers from the Castlemaine Magpies, Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League clubs such as Maldon and Campbells Creek and Castlemaine District Netball Association representatives to the free skills session.
The young men and women which took part also enjoyed the chance to try on some of Fiona’s various representative training shirts and dresses.
Fiona and Gary have just signed on with the Castlemaine Football Netball Club for another 12 months and look forward to continuing the work they started to rebuild the netball sides.
“We are very excited to sign on again with Castlemaine for 2023. We had an incredible year this year with recruiting players back to the club and focusing on getting teams competitive again,” Fiona said.
“We absolutely achieved that with A Grade and A Reserve finishing 4th, and our goal is to make sure our other grades follow this success in 2023. We are about to hold tryouts, plus attempt to bring back more Castlemaine players and keep this exciting culture of success growing. It really is an amazing time to be involved with this club and it is only up from here,” she said.
The Castlemaine Football Netball Club will be holding Senior Netball Try Outs for its 2023 squads at the Wesley Hill courts on Tuesday October 4 and Thursday October 6 from 6pm to 7.30pm each evening. To find out more and to register check out the Castlemaine Football Netball Club Facebook page or website at castlemainefnc.com.au
