Bendigo’s rising stars were crowned northern zone champions following Sunday’s tournament at the Golden City courts in West Bendigo.

In a dominant performance, coach Melinda Keighran’s side won all nine of its qualifying round-robin matches on Sunday, before defeating Central Murray 21-5 in their semi-final and a brave Sunraysia 13-10 in the grand final.

The grand final victory was the second of two wins by three goals for Bendigo on the day against Sunraysia.

Keighran, who is coaching the BFNL team for the third year, said she could not have been prouder of her players following their hectic schedule of 11 matches.

“It’s a huge day, but the task for our girls was to keep the momentum going all day,” she said.

“It’s a long road for the 17s to qualify for Melbourne.

“We did our selection before the girls had even taken to the (BFNL) court for the year, we’ve been training every week and we’ve been to three tournaments.

“It’s a big job for the girls, but it’s great seeing all these girls from different clubs coming together.

“The biggest advice I gave these girls is that there is no ‘I’ in team and this group of girls all know their role and play for each other.”

A BFNL team that included six first-year BFNL players was well led by captain Bree Heiden (Golden Square), vice-captain Sophie Shoebridge and her Sandhurst team-mate Ruby Turner.

The trio’s exposure to A-grade and A-reserve grade netball with their BFNL clubs proved influential on their team-mates and won the praise of their coach.

“Those three girls just created a wall in defence and the attackers struggled to get through them,” Keighran said.

“Ella Wicks did a great job through the centre and stepped back and helped the girls with that wall.

“Then you look at our three goalers, two of them are first-year BFNL players – Abbey Grindal and Ashlee O’Shea.

“Chloe Langley is a great story for Castlemaine – she was rock solid all day.

“She’s tall and and has very strong hands and is one of the most selfless players – she made our goalers look good and always finds the right option.”

Injuries before the tournament paved the way for Abbey Clohesy and Bridie Semmens to step into the team and both were strong contributors.

Bendigo entered the tournament in excellent form after finishing runners-up at a tournament in Shepparton last month, with just one loss for the day, and undefeated in another at Golden City on May 6.

North Central narrowly missed the semi-final with five wins, three losses and one draw, and Loddon Valley and Heathcote District finished seventh and ninth respectively, both 2-7.

In other northern zone championships decided on Sunday, Wimmera captured the 15-and-under title with a convincing 18-4 win over Sunraysia.

Rochester defeated Sunraysia 16-9 to win the 15-and-under reserve grand final, Bendigo Strathdale narrowly failed to land the 13-and under crown following a 16-12 loss to Wimmera, and Sunraysia defeated Castlemaine and District 11-3 to win the 13-and-under reserve title.

Meanwhile, Keighran praised the tournament venue and organisers for their smooth running of the tournament.

She said the redeveloped Golden City courts and venue and would put Bendigo at the forefront for consideration to host major netball tournaments for years to come.