CAMPERDOWN recruit Ashley Bradley’s first training session with the Magpies — a run up Mount Leura — is symbolic of her 2015 netball season.
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The key defender is preparing to make her Victorian Netball League (VNL) debut with new club, the Ballarat-based Sovereigns, in the elite championship division before she steps out with her Hampden league club.
The 21-year-old New Zealander is using the Magpies as her netball base after moving to Jancourt as a dairy farm worker.
She will give the Magpies more versatility in defence, playing at goal defence or wing defence.
But she is also capable of playing at goal keeper.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Bradley said.
“I played there (Camperdown) back in under 17s and moved away and now it’s good to be coming back.”
Bradley’s signing with the Magpies is a boost for the club, coming days after the club announced 300-game veteran Leah Sinnott was taking over as coach, five years after she last had the role. Bradley, who started her junior netball at Simpson before a year at Camperdown, has spent the past three years at Lockington in the Heathcote District Netball Association.
After representing the association in the North Central Regional State League, she decided to try out for a VNL club.
After being offered spots with Geelong Cougars, Yarra Valley Grammar Ariels and the Sovereigns, she opted to go with the Ballarat-based club.
“The fact it was closer, it’s a regional country club and the fact it’s a new club and they have got really experienced coaches in Natasha Chokljat and Eloise Southby as the high-performance manager, it was an opportunity too good to miss,” she said.
Bradley travels to Bacchus Marsh on Mondays and Ballarat on Wednesday and Thursdays for training with the Sovereigns.
“We’ve been training pre-season for about five or six weeks,” she said.
“We’ve had a training camp, as well as a specialist training session.
“I’m actually feeling pretty fit, the fittest I’ve ever been.”
She will continue with the heavy training load.
Bradley said her employers Neville and Sally Hallyburton, who she lives with, had been fantastic with their support and without it she would not be able to make the commitment.
Her first match with the Sovereigns is scheduled for February 7 against Peninsula Waves during a weekend season-opening, double-header round of matches.