The shield was cause for a double celebration as they became the highest-placed regional team who also won the event.

Their journey began back in February when the association held a special meeting to discuss future direction for their representative teams.

A changed perspective towards the Regional League competition saw the beginning of an exciting year.

The competition in Sydney had nine teams from both metro and regional areas fighting for their place on the ladder.

After playing all teams once, Hastings were at the top of the ladder which put them into division one for the play offs, however, all games had been tight, with very close scores.

The major semi was against Northern Suburbs who were defending champions and gave us our first loss.

Whilst the girls were obviously shattered and feeling very fatigued, they pooled all of their energy to beat Bathurst in the final which saw them meet the rested Norths team again in the grand final.

The determination that our team displayed in the final match of the day was nothing short of great pride for the community they were representing.

They fought hard for an 18-12 victory to bring both the State Cup and the Inter Regional shield to the Hastings.

Congratulations to all girls in the team who worked together both on and off the court and to their support crew whose voices in the crowd inspired them to play hard to the final whistle.

Thank you to Faye O’Neill who attended as their umpire and the Hastings Valley Netball Association for their support of representative netball.