Netball Academy

Fowler’s Cup 2025 – Lynton McKay (Netball Academy Coordinator)

The netball culture continues to grow at our amazing college. This year we entered 5 teams. One in each division: Year 7 girls, Junior Boys, Year 8/9 Girls, Senior Girls and Senior Boys. Many of the players have been working hard at Netball Academy and I knew we had the opportunity to be competitive in nearly all of the divisions. This was our most successful Fowler’s Cup ever with 3 of our teams remaining undefeated and taking gold! Well done to our Year 8/9 girls, Senior Girls and Senior Boys. Our Junior Boys were also able to come home with the silver as the runners up of their division. All of the students participating represented our college with pride and great sportsmanship. I would like to thank all of the people who helped to make a day like this possible. Our amazing parents (Debra and Kristy) and ex-students (Rachael) who volunteered their time to help out and coach and umpire a team. Without you, days like this are not possible and we truly appreciate you. The amazing Ivy Sneddon, who spent the whole day down at the courts umpiring and cheering on the Junior Boys, and finally Erin Toomey who as always does a brilliant job helping me organise the teams, coach and umpire games. Below are the write ups for each individual team.

Year 7 Girl’s team – Rachael Hurst (coach)

What a Day! We wrapped up the day with 2 wins from 5 games and a whole lot of team spirit! Even though we didn’t make the final, the girls played with a positive attitude and a strong determination on the court. My MVP was Halle. She was unstoppable on court and gave 100% every game. The coach’s award goes to Sophie – a defensive powerhouse, who made crucial intercepts and kept the pressure on and Bhavni. At the start of the carnival Bhavni was shy and unsure but as the day progressed, she became confident, vocal, and read the play like a pro! As a coach I am so proud of every single girl – their teamwork, respect, and energy were next level. An absolute joy to coach, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

7-9 Boy’s team – Erin Toomey (coach)

For a group of boys starting out in this sport, it seemed unusual to have experienced such big highs and definitive lows in a short space of time. In their first game of the day against St. Mary’s, the boys adjusted quickly to the fast-paced game and their confidence grew as they started to get a better understanding of their roles in the game. They sealed the win notably influenced by their determined defence across the court.

In following games, our defensive trio of John, Carter and Riley were able to shut down opportunities for opposition attackers often whenever the ball made it to the opposition’s attacking end. Aman became a surprise addition to the team who showed great persistence in attack and defence. Aman combined with Blake, Josh and Con to successfully clear out the ball and give many opportunities for the RSC shooters, Hezekiah, Darius and Eli.

The greatest challenge for our RSC junior boys was faced in their game against Smithfield High School. RSC Dragons showed early in the game that they were not going to give Smithfield any easy points and there was little separating the teams at half time, but the Smithfield boys stepped up another level in the second half leaving our RSC boys to reflect on how much they still have to learn in the game. Following this loss, we realised that Smithfield were going to be the most likely winners for the day so our new focus was ensuring that our Dragons’ team had no more losses for the day. Our boys were successful in achieving this goal, finishing off with a 16-0 win against Bentley Park and a hard-fought win in their second match-up against St. Marys in the final game, winning by three goals. The team never looked like they would back down and Darius was a stand out with his timing, movement and rebounding in the final game to help the team finish off the day as the overall Runners Up.

RSC Junior Boys MVP is awarded to John for creating the most turnovers and for his consistent pressure in defence. A coach’s award goes to Blake for being the most reliable player, his timing was excellent to get to the ball and he made very few mistakes throughout the day. Congratulations to all our Junior Boys.

8/9 Girl’s Team – Kristy Nowak (coach)

What a great day for the year 8/9 Netball team! The girls are such a wonderful and talented team, who ended up being undefeated and coming away with the trophy.

In the pool games we managed to stay undefeated. Our closest game was against St Mary's who we only beat by 1 goal. What a nail biter! Our amazing shooting end consisted of Jemma, Violet and Tayla and they shot great all day and really worked well together. Nevayeh also went shooter in some games to help out and was an amazing all rounder. During the day she also played in the midcourt and helped out in defence when needed. She gave 100% in every position and really helped the team! For all her hard work on the court at all different positions, Nevayeh got MVP for the day! Well done.

Our midcourters, Alexis, Lucy, Ruby and Emma, worked hard every game against some tough competition and moved the ball with great timing down the court into the shooters. Our defence of Indi and Bianca shut down the opposition shooters time and time again and worked well together. They got some great help from Lucy, Emma and Jemma when needed too. 

Our semi-final was against Tully, with the winner progressing to the GF. This was a hard game from the get-go. The girls all played great and worked so well as a team and at the end the scores were even! The game went into overtime. The girls dug deep and stayed calm to win in overtime by 4. They then had to go straight on and play Newman College in an epic final. With no break, they were all starting to get tired but they found that extra energy to dig deep and play some great netball. Every position I put them in they gave it their all and it paid off. When the final siren sounded they had beaten Newman by 5 goals. 

My coach’s award goes to Tayla who gave 100% in both midcourt and shooting. She shot great all day against some very tall defenders and her accuracy was on point.

All the girls were a pleasure to coach. They are all very talented players who deserved to be winners at the end.

10-12 Girl’s team – Deb Thompson (coach)

The senior girls’ team had an outstanding performance at the carnival, winning every single game with confidence and determination. Despite the unpredictable weather conditions, the girls stayed focused and played with great enthusiasm and dedication throughout the day. In their final pool game the girl’s came up against the formidable St Mary’s, who won both the CISSA title and Vicki Wilson Cup this year. The girls put together their strongest game of the carnival to gain the lead and they never looked back. They were patient and posed in attack and their defensive end made life hard for the Saint Mary’s shooters. The defenders consistently turned over the ball in pivotal moments during the game. After topping their pool, they were grand final bound. The grand final came against Cairns State High School who were the runners up this year for CISSA. Again the girls played brilliantly and ran home with a dominant win. I’m incredibly proud to have coached such a talented and committed group of young women. My Coach’s Award goes to Soraya Nowak for her unwavering motivation and encouragement towards the team, as well as for playing with incredible grit and determination. My MVP is a little harder as ALL the girls played well with the same intensity and determination for their team, but because I have to choose only one my MVP of the day goes to Zoe C.

10-12 Boy’s team – Lynton McKay (coach)

The senior boys had a fantastic day. This team has been building all year, attending netball academy lessons in order to learn the many rules of netball along with tricks and skills that they can use to their advantage to pair with their amazing athleticism. The boys managed to claim comprehensive victories against Ravenshoe, Mareeba, TAS and St Andrew’s. Their final game of the day was against Smithfield State High School. Smithfield have absolutely dominated the boy’s netball scene in Cairns for the last 3 years and their team has 2 QLD boys netball players. After losing to them in the final of the Vicki Wilson Cup the Redlynch team was back and ready to take it to them. The first half was very even with Redlynch trailing by one. In the second half Ben and Leon played with control in the attack end and fed the ball brilliantly to both Josh and Patrick. This limited Smithfield’s opportunities to turn the ball over. The defensive trio of Beau, Aiden and Danny did a fantastic job of building pressure on the Smithfield attacking end and as the half continued the team began to run away. By the time the final siren went the score was 15-9 to Redlynch. The boys were ecstatic to finally beat Smithfield. The MVP for the day went to Patrick Lacey. He was absolutely unstoppable in the shooting circle with opposition teams unable to shut him down. The Coach’s award goes to Danny Rapier. Danny consistently used feedback to adjust his game and was an extremely important part of the midcourt. Well done boys!