For new Seymour midcourter Ally Black, and many who hail from her area, the ‘travel ball’ mindset is hardly anything new.
Having grown up in Seymour, Black took the opportunity to represent Broadford during her teenage years, which naturally meant carefully balancing metropolitan and regional netball commitments.
Not that this was necessarily how she saw things panning out when she first picked the ball up.
“A few coaches said to maybe take it a little more seriously than it just being something where I’m coming to spend time with friends,” Black said.
“They saw a bit more potential than I did originally.
“Going into that environment with them having my back and knowing I’m there for a reason is where things started.”
In the wake of Broadford’s recess for 2024 though, Black was left without a club-level gig.
Naturally, with a wealth of options available to her, this was her chance to step up to the Goulburn Valley League for the first time in her home town.
“I played my juniors here in Seymour at St Mary’s, and from there I transitioned into playing at Broadford when I was 15,” Black said.
“That’s where my family was, so that’s what I did for the last six years.
“Things changing at Broadford changed my attention to come back for my home club, but I’ve also been in the Victorian Netball League world for four or five years.”
Sure enough, stability was no guarantee even at that higher level.
Black’s original VNL club was the Ariels in the eastern suburb of Melbourne, Heathmont, but like Broadford, Ariels has withdrawn from the top division of that league.
Now committed to Boroondara — another eastern metro franchise — Black continues to clock huge kilometres up, putting the rubber on the road in pursuit of game time.
“I live here in Seymour, so I’m travelling to Melbourne a couple of nights a week already,” Black said.
“It’s a lot nicer doing a five-minute drive to train here!
“My mum’s really good with being willing to drive me a lot of the time on my VNL game nights so that I’m not by myself every trip for a couple of hours.
“My partner’s very good as well with accompanying me to Saturday netball.”
Of course, the option was there to go in a completely different direction, given her busy netballing schedule which covers an expansive footprint.
Unlike most other netballers based further north in the Goulburn Valley competition, the formation of the Bendigo Strikers in the VNL offers very little geographical benefit to Black.
With plenty of her best netball ahead of her though, the 21-year-old was attracted by a competitive spirit in the local league.
“It’s really good coming to the GVL because of the higher standard,” Black said.
“It’s more like clinical netball, rather than rough and scrappy.
“You have your VNL players in the teams, but with the league being so strong, knowing there’s a lot of local talent is really good.
“Moving to Seymour allows me to play at a higher standard that allows me to develop my netball during the week.
“I think it’s good to know that there are more VNL and academy-level girls within this league coming through who are sometimes underneath me in age; it helps maintain a high standard.”
Netball and football are intertwined in the sense that players could run out for two or even three different outfits in a year, with wildly different standards along the way.
As far as Seymour is concerned though, Black paints an optimistic picture of the year ahead, despite an initial rocky start to the A-grade season.
“Across all our teams, we have premierships that could come,” Black said.
“Working collaboratively together throughout the four teams to achieve that is the goal.
“For me, it’s ensuring I can be in the best position and we can have the best opportunity to bring home premierships.
“If I stay here for the long run, then running out a good production of netball for as long as I can is the goal.
“Age is just a number, and you can be highly skilled from very young to very old.”
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