Aussie netballers aim for four golds at Maccabiah
There is so much to look forward to at the 2022 Maccabiah Games in netball, which Australia has such a proud track record of success in, as the reigning U18 and open women’s champions.
For starters, the Maccabiah netball program has significantly expanded, so the Aussies will not only have U18 and open women’s teams defending their titles, but also a team each in the new junior (U16) and masters (over-35) competitions.
All have left no stone unturned in their preparations for the Games in Israel this July, and all are aiming to win gold medals.
The Australian open women’s team – which features the most players from Victoria – will be taking on 2017 runners-up Great Britain, plus Israel, South Africa and Argentina.
Head coach Tali Friede said the squad has plenty of Maccabiah experience with the likes of Hayley Mrocki, Lainie Bejer, Timna Katranski and Amy Rockman, team captain and talented goal keeper Kate Lustig – “who has been marvellous in terms of creating an excellent team culture” – plus some skilful younger players.
“The majority of our squad has played together for many years, and combinations are strong,” Friede added, “so what we’ve been putting a lot of work into is maximising our fitness to give us the edge we’ll need in Israel, through a 10-week physical conditioning program.”
“At our recent training camp, our squad beat a Southern Football and Netball League team by 61-10.
“So our preparation is going well, and I’ve also been keeping an eye on the Israeli team, which recently competed in Europe.”
A keen new member of the open women’s squad, Sydneysider Mia Futeran, was the captain of Australia’s champion U18 girls’ team at the 2017 Games.
She told The AJN this week, as a more experienced player now, she can’t wait to contribute to the team’s success.
“I went to Melbourne for a Maccabiah training session a few weeks ago, and the girls were so welcoming and motivated,” Futeran said.
“As defending champions, there is a lot of expectation to win gold, and we believe we can do it.”
There are several family linkages among Australia’s four netball teams to make things extra special too.
Team manager and athlete combinations, in that order, include Nicole and Arianna Hearst in the open women’s, and Janine and Chloe Kovkin in the U18s.
Siena Michaelson is a player in the U18 squad, and her mum Leeanne is U16 team’s coach.
Kelly Bayer Rosmarin is an athlete-coach in masters, and her daughters Sienna and Saige are players in the U18 and U16 squads respectively, while her husband Rodney – Maccabi NSW president – is a player in Australia’s over-45 men’s football team.
Joining Kelly in the netball masters squad – an all-NSW team that includes Maccabi NSW Netball Club co-president Vanessa Abrahams – is Dallia Catzel, with whom Kelly played netball for Maccabi in South Africa in her childhood. Dallia’s daughter, Zoe, is in the U18 squad, while Dallia’s sister, Belinda Bernstein, is also in the masters team.
It will be Kelly, Sienna and Saige’s Maccabiah Games debut, and Rodney Rosmarin revealed, “in 2017 we set a goal as a family that we would all play at the 2022 Maccabiah, and now it’s going to happen!”
Sienna and Saige – former Maccabi juniors who currently play for Lane Cove Netball Club in the northern suburbs competition – feel excited at the opportunity to represent their country, and said the Aussie U16 and U18 netball teams’ goals “are definitely to go for gold”.
“We’ve all been training and preparing hard for the Games, so we’re very hopeful we can win,” Sienna said.
“Most of the players in our squads play competition netball each weekend for their clubs, and train during the week, and we’ve also had Maccabiah squad training camps in Melbourne, and team meetings on Zoom.
“The [Sydney-based] girls try to meet up every Sunday too, for fitness training and practice.”
“We don’t know much about the other teams in our draws [Great Britain, South Africa and Israel], so we’ll just focus on our own game.”
The Aussie U16 team has six players from NSW and four from Victoria.
The U18 squad has one Victorian, Jemma Kausman, with the remainder made up of NSW-based players, mostly from Maccabi teams, including Brooke Rosen, 16, who plays in open women’s A3 grade and also coaches a junior Maccabi NSW team.
Rosen, who was too young to play at the last Games in 2017, said she “can’t wait” to finally make her Maccabiah debut.
Dallia said the masters squad trains every week, and is fortunate to have a very experienced coach in Heath Brown.
Kelly added, part of the team’s preparation each week includes playing a match against local netball association masters teams.
“We’ll be ready, for sure,” Dallia said.
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