Beveridge aims for better season in Vixens attack

For Kate Beveridge, the opportunity to move from the Adelaide Thunderbirds to the Melbourne Vixens last year was too good to refuse.Formerly an Australian Diamonds goal-shooter, Beveridge had hoped to team with Bamawm-raised star Sharelle McMahon in a potent Vixens attacking line-up destined to terrorise ANZ Championship defences.Last year was also meant to be the year 26-year-old Beveridge bounced back from a disappointing campaign in 2010, when she was dropped from the Diamonds team and only a reserve for the Commonwealth Games.But neither happened.McMahon was struck down early in the Vixens’ season with a career-threatening Achilles injury.Her injury thrust Beveridge into the senior attacking position and – by her own admission – she didn’t have the season she was hoping for as the Vixens missed the finals.In Bendigo yesterday to promote the Central Victorian Netball Festival – an event where the Vixens team will feature prominently – Beveridge said she was intent on getting her performance back to a level which the national selectors will notice.“This year I’ll be trying to step out there and be more of a leader and help out the younger girls in Sharelle’s absence.”Beveridge has been involved with the Australian Fastnet team – which she describes as netball’s version of Twenty20 cricket – and she will take on her old club, the Thunderbirds, in a pre-season match for the Vixens at Bendigo Stadium on Saturday, March 24.Although expectant mother McMahon won’t be involved on the court, she will speak at a Women in Leadership breakfast at the Shamrock Hotel on the morning of the Vixens’ match.Beveridge grew up in Bunbury and she can appreciate the importance of events like the festival in promoting sporting and community development in young people from country areas. Tickets for the Central Victorian Netball Festival events go on sale Friday.