In what can only be described as a rather unusual (and short) netball season, due to Covid-19, Rāroa teams (and their whanau) have shown an immense amount of resilience, determination and school spirit, resulting in some amazing results across the season.

We would love to send a massive thank you to all coaches, managers and umpires for our 16 teams - the season could not have gone ahead without your incredible time, effort and support.

On Monday 12th October the 2020 netball season was celebrated at the Northern Suburbs Netball prize giving, where five Raroa teams picked up awards for finishing as runners-up or winning their respective grades:

C3 – Rāroa Pukeko (1st)

C2 – Rāroa Garnets (1st)

C1 – Rāroa Opals (1st)

B3 – Rāroa Diamonds (1st)

A1 – Rāroa Eagles (runner-up)

There were many smiling, happy faces at the prize giving (and the loudest cheers – I’m sure) when our Rāroa netballers went up to collect their awards from Central Pulse players, Aliyah Dunn and Maddy Gordon.

Phoebe Lucy, Laney Chapman-Myhill and Olivia Pritchard were recognised for completing the Kiwi Whistler programme throughout the season.

In addition, the Rāroa Eagles were also acknowledged for earning a place in the Wellington Netball intersatellite competition – which sees the top 3 intermediate teams from the Northern suburbs, compete with the top teams from Wellington West Netball and Motu Kairangi Netball.

The intersatellite tournament was played on the first Saturday of the school holidays – usually played over five Saturdays, this year it was played in one day – five games in five hours! As second qualifiers from the North, the Eagles came up against EBIS, SWIS and Kelburn in their pool play. With some of the best year 8 netballers in Wellington on the court, the Eagles stepped up and showed off their amazing defensive and attacking skills, with two convincing wins, and one narrow loss to SWIS in pool play. The games featured impressive mid-court defensive and accurate circle feeding from midcourters Liv Pritchard, Maia Suttie and Laney Chapman-Myhill, backed up by strong defensive performances from Phoebe Lucy, Jess Churchman and Nasi Meafoou. Shooters Ava Kinikinilau, Lily Tankersley and Abbie Sutherland, all showed off their individual skills in the shooting circle, combining well in a variety of pairings, and with shooting stats well over 80 percent between them.

This meant they finished 3rd of the 8 teams moving into the semi-finals, and faced off against SWIS, who they had lost to by 3 points in pool play. With the final in their sights, the Eagles played the best game of their season, up by 2 at half time, they put their foot down in the final quarter and with amazing team defence, impressive circle feeding (including some first-class long-bombs fired into the shooting circle by the midcourters) and pinpoint perfect shooting the Eagles pulled off an upset win beating SWIS 17-10 and setting up an all Northern Suburbs final against Tawa Intermediate.

Despite the Eagles best effort, led by some outstanding defense by Nasi, the Eagles could not rein in an impressive Tawa Intermediate team (undefeated all season), who sprung out to a 5-0 lead. Despite matching them goal for goal for a large percentage of the game, the early run and another run in the second half, saw Tawa take out the competition. The Eagles finishing as runners-up and with Newlands Intermediate finishing fourth, showed Wellington just how strong the Northern Suburbs netball was in 2020.