Tara Murray
New Riddell coach Beck Anstey wasn’t expecting to return to coaching in the Riddell District Netball League next season.
Having coached earlier in her career at Romsey and the Sunbury Lions, Anstey has enjoyed just focusing on playing in recent years.
She will let her playing take a back seat, having been appointed the Bombers A-grade coach for next season.
“I always said that I would go back to coaching,” she said. “I thought that I had one more season of playing in me.
“Just after the final last year and not having an allocated coach, and you don’t see everything when you’re playing, I decided the girls deserve a coach.”
Anstey, who won the club’s A-grade best and fairest this season, said she would like to dabble in playing B-grade next season and only help out playing in A-grade if they were really desperate.
Anstey said she had really enjoyed being at the club.
“It is exciting and there is a good group of girls there as well,” she said. “They’re all so young and I bought the average age up.
“We want to keep all the girls and bring them back next year.”
The Bombers had an up and down year in 2022, unable to get their full team on the court for most of the year.
They also parted ways with coach Adam Boldiston throughout the season, leaving them without a sideline coach in the finals.
They still managed to finish fourth, knocked out by eventual premiers Diggers Rest in a semi final.
Anstey said they had some really good young local talent at the club, who she was excited to see more of next year.
She highlighted Madison Brown, who cemented a spot in the A-grade team, despite still playing under-19s.
Brown has secured a Victorian Netball League contract for next season.
The Bombers will have trials on November 17 and 24, with Anstey saying they were looking to add to all four sides.
“We’re really motivated to recruit across all grades,” she said. “We want to keep our core group and look to fill some gaps we have.
“We want to try and attract the right player to the club and that aligns with our values and culture.
“We had a ball on court this season and we want to build on that across all our grades and get all our teams to play finals.”
