Shooting 94 goals in a game was all in a day’s work for Sunbury Lions star Rebecca Hicks on Saturday in the Ballarat Netball League.
The star shooter put up a massive 94 goals as her side beat Ballarat 96-26 in one of the best shooting performances ever seen in the league.
Hicks had 98 shots for the game, missing just four, as she averaged more than a one and half goals a minute.
“It wasn’t my plan,” said a sore Hicks the following day. “I just show up every Saturday and all I want to do is just shoot to the best of my ability.
“To hit 94, I don’t think anyone has ever done that in a game. Pretty proud moment for myself and I think for the club as well.”
Hicks said she had no idea she was getting close to that 100 goal mark until the Lions footballers on the side started screaming at her about getting 100 goals.
Hicks’ previous best in the league was 84 goals when she was playing for Darley in 2023. She also scored 82 goals in a game that same season.
The performance came despite a back niggle and having played the night before.
“We’ve got a few players out with injury and some are away on holidays, so I’ve had to step in and play on Friday,” Hicks said.
“I shot atrociously on Friday, I didn’t play well. I knew on Saturday I had to back it up.”
Hicks said to score 96 goals as a team for the game was a massive result in itself.
The reigning premiers are undefeated after four rounds.
“We don’t expect to score that much,” she said. “We did have fill-ins, we had a B-grade goaler playing alongside myself.
“We then had to put Simmy [Simona Di Filippo] into goals to give her a break. I think for us, we just needed to win that game to keep ticking along.
“For me, I just had a good ball supply from our defenders and our middies. For us to score that much was to the credit of them.”
Chelsea Amor put up two goals from five attempts, while Di Filippo missed her three shots.
Hicks said Amor is an awesome goaler who listens, making it easy for Hicks to adapt to her.
“I don’t ask a lot of my goal attacks, just get the ball to me as fast as you can,” she said. “I’ll do the rest.”
For Hicks, much of her week is consumed by netball.
As well as playing for the Sunbury Lions, she coaches and plays at Glen Orden in the Western Netball League.
She’s taken on playing when she can for Woodend-Hesket in the Riddell District Netball League, while playing in the state’s top competition, the Victorian Netball League with the Western Warriors.
Hicks said she had always wanted to play VNL and something that she had thought about the past few years.
“I have a family, I have three kids and it makes it hard to juggle,” she said. “They’re all playing netball as well.
“For me, it’s about having a good support system and my partner and our families to help out with the kids.
“That’s the only way it’s been made possible. If I didn’t have that support system, I wouldn’t be able to play as much netball and give VNL a good crack, I’m blessed to have that system behind me.”
Hicks said having the chance to match it with the best netballerS in the state in the VNL was a good challenge that she loved.
“The difference between VNL and footy-netball was so big,” she said. “The level of netball you play is unreal.
“It’s a bit of a reality check. Yes, I’m good at football-netball leagues but playing VNL has been a humbling experience.”
