This will take in around 40 girls aged from 12 through to 15 .

This championship is held at three venues due to its size and is held over three days. Teams play 19 half hour games. The girls have been training hard for the last five months and participating in carnivals as part of their training, from Nambucca to Newcastle to increase fitness and skills. Laura Watman as captain and Charlotte Hogan as vice captain will lead the Taree girls over the three days, starting with the March Past on Saturday morning.

THE 12 reps consists of the following players Samira Mitchell, Chyna Johnson, Tilly Hollis, Josephine Stewart, Neevah Hunt, Jessica Ferris, Alex Cross, Emma Shoesmith, Ruby-Scarlet Wilson and have been training well under the coaching team of Marion Neale and Jacinta Harvey. Unfortunately the team has only attended two lead-up carnivals due to wet weather. The first in Newcastle saw the team perform extremely well, winning six of their seven games while the second carnival was in Taree, where they had mixed results winning four from 7. The team did improve over the course of the day with wins over teams that they had previous beaten them.

All of the players have stepped up the next level at training and hopefully can take this new knowledge and put it into action over the course of the three days of competition.

TAREE’S under 13 representative side with Charlotte Rainger , Ella Farland , Emily Summerville, Sophie-Clare Croker, Tully Crossingham, Caitlin Rodgers, Brooke Smith, Ella Bramsen, Hannah Elford, Ashlee Vickers , will compete in division three, which will prove a great challenge, but one they are well prepared.

Defensive players pride themselves on their intercept skills and are pleasure to watch. They have a strong desire to do well which is reflected in the amount of turn overs in possession they achieve.

The mid court work tirelessly and combined with both the defence and attack ends really work well together. They have certainly increased their skill in decision making and having a suite of passes necessary for strong mid court players.

The shooters have now formed some great combinations, creating the space and achieving accuracy required at this level. Our attacking circle is looking like a force to be reckoned with. 

Coach Narelle Dark, Sarah Rodgers as the assistant coach and manager Eva Croker have worked tirelessly behind the scenes and been a mammoth of support to the 13 girls.

THE 14’s campaign started out slowly with some new additions to the team and the girls have hit the floor running adapting and learning about the new players and now. Five months down the track, they are stronger than ever. 

Lara Slade and Samantha Chicken have been chosen by their team members to lead the team. Both have been in the team since they started with the 12s in 2015.

Rounding out the rest of the court are Jessica Eagles, Abbie Gaul, Katelyn Page, Chanel Leifting, Keira Bosher, Amber Trad, Sarah Christian. For some of these girls it will be their first experience at State Age, but both coaches Lindy King and Bec Chicken are highly confident they will rise to the occasion.

"We have a depth of experience and have no doubt that the seasoned players will step up and guide them through what will be a tough three days," Bec said. 

"Our job is exceptionally rewarding, however, there is very little we can do now, the girls have got to give it everything they have got, everything they have trained so hard for and believe in themselves and each other and they will make it over the line," Lindy added. 

Jacinta Gaul rounds out the team as manager, and the coaches have said they are exceptionally lucky to have her back for the second year. "This year has been easier as I know what I'm doing and the information is exceptionally clear from the associations rep co-ordinator, Nicole Maroney, who does a stellar amount of work, goes above and beyond for each and every team. She has made my job easy," Jacinta explained.

TAREE 15s will play in their last State Age Championships contesting division two hosted by Liverpool Netball Association. They'll play 18 games over the three days. Charlotte Hogan, Hope Extrem, Kiara Hollis and Laura Watman are the original players from the under 12s from 2014, and will notch up four years of representation to Taree and District Netball. Faith Saunders and Emily Rainger will take part in their third State Age, with Lucy Lawson, Isabella Deas, Luka Urqhart and Fallan Porter all representing Taree for the first time at the championships.

After finishing eighth last year coach Rachael Keating and manager Vanessa Hogan took a different approach to the lead up to the championships and entered the team in the under 17s Mid North Coast Regional League, where they finished fourth, against older and more experienced teams. The team took away a great deal of confidence from this competition after some excellent wins against some much fancied teams. They also took part in carnivals in Taree, Newcastle, Maitland and Lakeside where they came up against many teams that they will encounter this weekend. The girls also took part in the Taree and District Monday night indoor competition where they were grand finalists, going down in the grand final to The Big Girls team made up of members from the Taree Opens team 28-19. The team has used this time to work on new combinations, as well as concentrating on speed, agility and tactical play. Hope Extrem has been named captain of the team with Kiara Hollis as vice captain.

CHAMPIONSHIPS, carnivals and any game of netball would not be possible without the tireless efforts of umpires. This weekend Taree has Stacey Watson, Janine Kennewell, Mandy Moscatt, Mikayla Stone, Mel Adamson giving up their time to umpire a variety of teams from around the State for three days across both venues.

WITH 40 girls participating plus coaches, assistant coaches, managers and umpires, it is a mammoth task to organise this weekend at State Age as well as the logistics of getting the girls and coaches, umpires to all representative carnivals in the lead up months.  Taree Netball started the year without a representative convenor to do this, until Nicole Moroney agreed to take on the position.  She came in cold with no idea of what was involved, quickly took the reins and has done an outstanding job to bring the Taree District Netball Representative cohort together.  Nicole has worked tirelessly to fit out girls in uniforms, organise transport, accommodation, food, umpires, take photos at carnivals and in between watch her daughter play.