Maccabi soar in Randwick grand finals
“It was a very good season, and it’s a great time for Maccabi netball.”
Maccabi NSW Netball Club teams won two out of three grand finals at the Heffron courts last Saturday, to finish their 2023 Randwick Netball Association season on a real high.
In the morning, the U13 division 5 Maccabi Reds showed why they were minor premiers, and had only lost one game throughout the 14-round regular season, when comprehensively winning their decider by 22-9 over Saints Blue.
Coached by Vanessa Abrahams, and assistants Allie Joseph and Nicola Lonstein, the roaring Reds demonstrated their skills, stamina, and fair play all season, and are deserving title winners.
Another U13 team, Maccabi Lime, won their division 4 grand final to also emerge as champions.
They did it the hard way, having finished fourth on the ladder, qualifying for the grand final by winning a semi-final and a preliminary final, and faced ladder leaders RBSC Blue in the decider.
Displaying plenty of spirit, and keen to show what they were made of, Maccabi Lime, coached by Chelsea Roth, prevailed by 16-13 in a thriller.
In the afternoon, in women’s division B1, minor premiers Maccabi, coming off an extra-time preliminary final win the week before, ran into a red hot UNSW Grays team in their grand final.
Maccabi began well, leading 10-9 after the first quarter, but struggled from then on to contain a free-flowing, fast-passing attacking game by their opponents, eventually falling 33-51.
Co-captain Shayna Slotar said the team – which was promoted one division after winning last year’s B2 decider by one point – “kept fighting hard all the way today, and got so close to another title”.
“It was a very good season, and it’s a great time for Maccabi netball.”
Club president Michelle Samuel said with the success of the two U13 premiership winning teams, a third U13 team that came third, the club’s two women’s teams that were runners-up (B1) and semi-finalists (B2), plus “the amazing season by all our Net Set Go teams, there’s so much to be proud of this season”.
She added that the club also introduced regular skills clinics this year, workshops aimed at supporting potential representative players, and pathways to support players who want to become umpires and coaches.
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