Having two kids play in netball grand finals would be a dream for any parent.
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What makes it more of a nightmare situation is when they are on the same day. At the same time. In two different cities, that are two hours apart.
That was the case for Warrnambool’s Monk family on Saturday.
Amelia played for Lake Wendouree in the Ballarat league under 19 grand final, and younger sister Laya took to the court for Koroit in the Hampden league 15 and under grand final.
Local radio personality Matt ‘Monkey’ Monk and wife Tania were faced with the tough dilemma of which would go and watch which daughter. In the end, Matt went to Ballarat and Tania stayed in Warrnambool.
“It probably came down to networks. I used to play at Lake Wendouree and Tania had formed a strong bond with the Koroit netball mums,” Matt said.
“We were just happy they had both made it. Amelia in particular was the one we sweated on each week. They came from sixth so it was a week-to-week proposition.”
Despite having one parent at each Tania said it was still a difficult situation.
“(It was) awful, really tough,” she said.
“We support our kids in their sport as much as possible. I was heartbroken as Amelia would have loved both of us to be there as it will be most likely her final year for Lake Wendouree.
“But with the games played at exactly the same time 9am it was unavoidable.”
Tania added that both her and her husband kept each other posted with regular updates.
“There were missed calls, texts, urgent questions marks a whole range of emojis,” she said.
“Layla’s game ended up with a decent margin whereas Monkey (Matt) had to go through overtime so at one stage there was about eight texts in a row every time a goal was scored.”
The two daughters said they both understood the situation, though as Amelia pointed out, she secretly had a preference of which parent watched her game.
“It was hard, but I knew they both couldn’t be and it worked out well because we both won,” she said.
“I was kind of happy it was dad in the end because Mum has become a bit of a bad luck charm.”
It seemed both girls got their way.
Layla, who was named best on court in Koroit’s 15 and under grand final win, said she was happy to have mum Tania on the sidelines. Well, kind of happy.
"It didn’t really make a difference, mum has been consistently there so it was pretty normal," she said.
"Mum is really loud and I have to give her the look sometimes so she settles down, but it does help motivate me I guess."
There was one other dilemma the Monk family managed to avoid. That was if only one of them won their grand final.
“It would have been tough consoling one and at the same time expecting her to be overjoyed for her sister,” Matt said.
“They (grand finals) are hard to win so things worked out great.”