Ronan Pring recently represented Victoria in the men’s U17s development team at the Australian Men’s and Mixed Netball Championships — which was no mean feat given he has just turned 13.
The championships took place this year at the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre in Queensland over April.
Men’s netball is growing rapidly in popularity and this year saw over 500 athletes from around the country, as well as some international visitors, come together on the Gold Coast to compete in the 33rd Australian Men’s and Mixed Netball Championships.
It shows that while women have the spotlight in a sport they have historically dominated, men can play netball too — and very well.
Ronan is a member of the Warrandyte Netball Club and has been playing netball since he was nine years old, having been inspired to give the game a go after many hours of being taken to watch his sister play.
He decided to “give it a try,” found that he loved the sport and has been playing at every opportunity since, both at local, representative level, and now State level.
Ronan was one of the youngest players to try out for the Victorian squad last year, and has since been regularly training with, and playing against, other netballers years older than himself.
Victoria was the only state to enter development teams this year, and it was a great opportunity for players in those teams to gain valuable match experience at the highest level available for the men’s game in Australia.
The U17s development team played eight one-hour games over the course of five days and, although they did not win a game, they fought hard each game and certainly made the opposition work hard for their wins.
On a couple of occasions, the Victorian team came within a few goals of winning a game, and they got the best of the winners of the U17s division, NSW, in a couple of quarters.
The 2017 Championships have given Ronan a taste for netball at the elite level, and he hopes to represent Victoria again next year, and maybe even Australia in the future.
Warrandyte Diary, May 2017
Warrandyte Diary archives
