THREE Cobden stars will replace a trio of experience in the Hampden league's final squad for Sunday's Netball Victoria Association Championships.
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Emily Finch, Alicia Blain and Rebecca Dendle will take the place of star attackers, Koroit's Nell Mitchell (ankle), Warrnambool's Amy Wormald (Mermaids duties), and Port Fairy defender Carly Watson (knee) for the round-robin tournament in Frankston.
Second-year Bottle Greens coach Mel Starr said the trio would slot right into the squad, which beat Ballarat in an interleague match back in May.
"Emily is obviously one of the top shooters for the open division this year and her volume of shots this year and strength will be handy," she said.
"She has also played at this level before and will provide a good focus up front.
"Rebecca and Alicia have the ability to play end to end so they bring a lot of flexibility to slot into any role that's required of them and we are going to need them on long days like this."
The 12-player squad will play nine games across the day and if they make finals they will go past the 10-game mark.
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Starr has been impressed with this year's preparations and confirmed most of the team would be travelling to Frankston and staying together on Saturday night.
The Southern Grampians Shire employee, who coaches Cobden's open-grade side, said there were a number of teams she was looking forward to facing.
"We don't know who we are coming up against until we get there," she said.
"Geelong is usually exceptionally strong and they're generally always filled with state-level players so we expect them to be strong again and the biggest challenge.
"Generally the Bendigo-based teams can be difficult just like the Ballarat teams. The country leagues that are on the peripheral of Melbourne are usually strong."
The Hampden league's under 17, 15 and 13 sides will also be travelling to Melbourne to compete in the annual inter-association tournament.
Leah Sinnott (under 17s), Stacey O'Sullivan (under 15s) and Danielle McInerney (under 13s) will lead the junior sides on Sunday.
Final Open squad
Emily Finch, Remeny McCann, Rebecca Dendle, Nadine McNamara, Amy Hammond, Alicia Blain, Jess Wheadon, Jordyn Billings, Skye Billings (North Warrnambool Eagles), Jess Cameron (Camperdown), Sarah O'Keeffe (Warrnambool), Emily-Rose Finnigan (Koroit)
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