SHE won’t be lining up for Kangaroo Flat this season, but Ruby Barkmeyer will have more than enough netball on her plate in 2018.

The supremely-talented teenager is anxiously awaiting the start of the Victoria Netball League season with Geelong Cougars and will again play with Geelong Grammar - where she is a boarder – in the strong Associated Grammar Schools competition.

First-up for Barkmeyer will be representing Victoria in the 17-and-under national championships.

The championships will be contested in Adelaide next week, with Victoria expected to vie with New South Wales and Queensland for title honours.

Barkmeyer, who previously represented her state at 15-and-under level, expects the Victorians will get a good early guide to their chances, with games against both New South Wales and Queensland scheduled on the opening day of the tournament on Tuesday.

“It will be a tough day to begin with,” she said.

“We then have two games per day until Saturday and Sunday when the finals are played.

“The grand final on Sunday is what we are aiming for.

“We’ve trained for 14 weeks, so we’ve had a lot of preparation – it will be good to finally play.”

Barkmeyer felt her previous representative netball experience, including her appearance with the Australian team at the Digicel Punjas International Secondary Schools Netball Challenge in Fiji, would serve her and the Victorian team well.

Juggling netball with the demands of her VCE studies, the 17-year-old has opted to prioritise the VNL season over BFNL with Kangaroo Flat.

The goal-shooter was best-on-court in Geelong Cougars’ thrilling one-goal under-19 grand final win last season, scoring 32 of her team’s 54 goals.

The Cougars will be aiming for a premiership three-peat, with Barkmeyer adamant the team was capable of again being a contender.

“We started the pre-season cup last week, have two more games Wednesday (today) and then start the season when I get back from Adelaide,” she said.

“We won our first two pre-season cup games against Boorondara and Monash – hopefully when can go back-to-back-to-back.”

While her netball load remains heavy, Barkmeyer insisted her education would come first in 2018.

She intends keeping a regular eye on the progress of her former club Kangaroo Flat, who will start the season this weekend against Gisborne with a new coach in Jayden Cowling.

Like most in BFNL circles, she is also more than curious as to how her former Roos premiership coach Jannelle Hobbs will fare in her first season at the helm of South Bendigo.

“Flat should still play finals – they have quite a young team and Jayden has put them through a tough pre-season,” she said.

“They should make top four.”