2018 NORTH Coast finalists MacKillop College and St Joseph's Regional College looked to secure their ticket to the 2019 TAFE NSW Netball Schools Cup finals on Thursday.
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Traditionally one of the stronger schools, MacKillop aimed to replicate their success from last year when they won three of the four divisions at the annual event.
More than 30 teams competed in Port Macquarie in one of six local days held on the North Coast.
Netball NSW North Coast regional development manager Gill Cotter said the top two teams in each division would progress to the North Coast regional final on August 1.
It will be held in Port Macquarie.
She said St Columba Anglican School had improved and could challenge the other two schools in coming years.
"They're really growing as a netball school and their year 9/10 boys team is looking very good," she said.
Cotter admitted the quality of boys matches had improved dramatically since the competition started in 2013.
"The boys are loving it and one of the games I umpired was a bit of a mix between AFL and netball; it's a very aerial game which is great to watch," she said.
"They don't realise they have three seconds to do something with the ball, they think they have one second.
"The quality in the boys games has grown ridiculously, it's well ahead of where it was which is really encouraging.
"It's great for the older girls who coach the boys' teams to get some coaching practice in as well.
The primary school competition was held on Wednesday with Hastings Primary School and Tacking Point Public School progressing to the next stage.
"We had 41 teams for the primary school day - so that was year 3/4 and year 5/6," Cotter said.
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