The day after grand final day, we held our end of season presentation, which was the biggest one in recent memory, with over 220 people attending including some special guests.
We were privileged to have WNC Life Member Jan Briar attend, along with Nicole Werner MP, Cr Carli Lange (Yarra Ward), and the newly elected Mayor of Manningham, Cr Jim Grivas (Ruffer Ward).
Presentation day is a day where we celebrate not only our players and teams, but also the volunteers who work so hard behind the scenes to keep the club running.
Manningham Council recognises that volunteers are the lifeblood of our communities, so it was appropriate that Cr Lange and Cr Grivas presented the Community Bank Warrandyte Volunteer of the Year to Jess Longstaff and the Club Person of the Year to Sue Hadden.
The Dusting Player of the Year award is given to a player who has done much more than just play netball for WNC and this year we were proud to present it to Norah B.
Norah has played with Warrandyte since 2018, plays representative netball for Manningham, umpires (just awarded her umpire’s C Badge) and buddy coaches the 11U Possums.
She was a very worthy winner and was presented with her award by Nicole Werner MP.
Normally that would be the end of our club awards, but this year we had a special surprise in store – the awarding of a life membership which is the ultimate honour the club can bestow on someone.
Suzy O’Rourke has been involved at WNC since 2014 when her daughter played in the 9Us and she started on the committee in the role of social events and fundraising before becoming Vice President for five years and supporting three Presidents.
She has coached, played, and run NetSetGo training, and most recently she manages sponsorship and social media for the club.
Congratulations to Suzy who is only the ninth life member in our club’s 50-year history!
Along with record numbers for our presentation day, we also had a great attendance at our team grading day held at Mullum Mullum Stadium on Sunday, November 30 with over 100 players from the 11U through to 17U age groups.
We have 30 players selected for representative teams in 2026 as well as one coach – a reflection of the strength of WNC our club as well as the commitment and dedication of our coaches to developing our players.
We are also very proud that Callista M, Scarlett O, and Sierra W have been selected to play for the Chisholm Region in the state titles over the Labor Day long weekend in March next year.
While we often just focus on players, we could not play netball without umpires and this year Alannah Parrot, Sophie Shaw, and Norah Bulgin received their C Badge umpire accreditation and several more WNC players started their umpire training.
Sophie Shaw was the recipient of the MNA Umpire Development Award and Imogen Hughes received the Umpire Achievement Award at the 2025 Donny Ball awards night.
With such success on and off the court, as well as umpiring from the sidelines, the future of Warrandyte Netball Club is bright.
If you would like to join us in 2026, registrations will soon be opening so please keep an eye out on our Facebook and Instagram pages and our website.
Warrandyte Diary, December 2025
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