Related:
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
JANE Cook is shooting for the stars.
In a whirlwind 12 months, the 200cm goalshooter has toured New Zealand with Australia and represented Victoria at underage level, and played in an Ovens and Murray premiership with her beloved Wodonga Bulldogs.
But the 18-year-old is just getting started.
“I’d like to take netball as far as possible,” she said.
Cook, who is believed to be on the radar of several ANZ Championship clubs, spent four days at Netball Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Canberra at a “talls camp” in December.
She has impressed in winning a championship with City West Falcons in the Victorian Netball League and was recently named in the Victorian Fury squad to compete in the Australian Netball League. Cook will also represent Victoria in the 21-and-under team to compete in the national championships in Tasmania in early March.
Longer term, her goal is to make the Australian team to compete at the World Youth Cup in Botswana.
It has been a rapid rise in the sport for Cook.
Growing up competing in little athletics and playing basketball, she only tried her hand at the sport after her father Garry suggested it.
“Next thing, I was making rep teams and really loved it,” she said.
Cook said she enjoyed each rise in standard with representative teams but nothing had been as brutal as the switch from under-16s to A grade in the Ovens and Murray.
“That was a pretty big reality check to say that netball is certainly not an easy sport,” she said.
“Now, I have just been taking it step by step through the pathway.
“Training here at Wodonga with the A grade squad compared to going and training with the City West championship team, it’s a massive step up but it’s a challenge I’m willing to take.”
The reigning O and M hot shots winner is about to move to Melbourne to study podiatry at La Trobe University.
While she might have the netball world at her feet, Wodonga – and the Bulldogs – will always be home.
“I couldn’t be happier to have won the flag with Wodonga,” she said.
“It was two years in the making after not being able to win the 2014 flag so to win one with those girls was awesome.
“I’d love to get back and play for the Bulldogs this year.
“I haven’t committed to any football-netball clubs down in Melbourne for the reason that this is home and I love the club, so fingers crossed I might be able to get back for one or two games.”
