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Netball star Sharelle shoots for the top | |
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Around the Academy: |
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Australia's vice-captain Sharelle McMahon
Sharelle McMahon is a woman on a mission.
After almost a decade as the world's top netball team, her beloved Australia have slipped to number two in the rankings behind arch-rivals New Zealand. But if Sharelle has her way, that won't be the case for long! The Aussie vice-captain tells the Academy about her rise to the top, the game Down Under and how she's planning to beat the Kiwis!
I started playing netball when I was seven years old. My mum coached the school team, and both her and my grandma played every Saturday. They decided to get me playing as early as possible.
Netball is a semi-professional sport in Australia. We get some payment for playing, but it's certainly not enough to live off and most of us have regular jobs as well. When we're with the Aussie team we try to make sure we act like professionals, both in our training and the way we conduct ourselves.
Netball is a very popular sport in Australia and although we don't get a massive amount of media coverage at the moment it's definitely getting better. We live in a very sporty country, though, so we've got plenty of competition from all the other national teams! One of the great things about netball is the chances it gives you to travel. I certainly wouldn't have been to as many places I've been to if it wasn't for my sport. We don't always get to see that much of the countries we visit, though. On our recent tour of England we played three matches, in three different cities, in six days. Most of that time was spent on the bus, at the match venue or at our hotel. We got the chance to do a bit of shopping on our visit to London, but that was about it!
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