It’s been a dream for eight years for Cobar netball coach Amie Hill to take a Cobar representative team to the State Championships and that dream was realised on the weekend when the Cobar Opens side competed at the Netball NSW 2016 Samsung State Championships at Charlestown.
This year’s State Championships were co-hosted by the Newcastle and Charlestown netball associations with Cobar competing in Division 2 in Charlestown against 23 other teams over three days of competition.
The Cobar side acquitted themselves very well and earned a good reputation with umpires and other teams throughout the carnival.
In their first game on Saturday, Cobar came up against Mudgee (who finished as overall runners-up) and only trailed by three goals at half time.
Mudgee found another gear in the second half to finish as 20-9 winners.
Cobar had a convincing 16-11 win in their second match of the day against Tamworth and later had a comprehensive 20-9 win over Southern Highlands.
The Cobar side finished their first day of competition on a high with a thrilling 19-all tie with the highly rated Singleton team after fighting their way back into the match after trailing 6-10 at the half time break.
The Cobar side had a tougher draw on Day 2 of the competition and, despite some great passages of play, they were beaten in all of their eight games.
Their closest match of the day was against Dubbo, who closed out the game as 17-15 winners.
Despite a brilliant second half comeback by the Cobar side in their first match up against Blue Mountains on Day 3, the Blue Mountains girls hung on to keep their State Championships unbeaten record in tact.
Blue Mountains went on to finish as overall winners and were crowned the 2016 Division 2 State Champions.
Cobar’s best game of the competition was their second match on Day 3 against Coffs Harbour. After being 9-all at half time, the Cobar side dug deep to finish the thrilling match as 17-16 winners.
Later in the day Cobar rattled the Bathurst side taking a 6-4 lead at half time before Bathurst re-grouped and claimed a 16-10 win.
Cobar also led by two goals at half time in their match against Wollondilly but narrowly lost that game 11-13.
The Cobar side finished their State campaign on a high with a big 21-9 win over Coonabarbran.
Coach Hill said she was very proud of the team’s performance at their first State Championships and was impressed with the effort and intensity her players put into each and every one of the 23 games they played.
