Thanks to the hard work of the Bendigo Sports Trainers Association, the teams are covered.

The association has been involved with the tournament for 20 years and veteran trainer John Murnane has seen 17 of them.

Murnane first got involved in sports training when taking his daughters to netball games and recognised there was a need for the players to be looked after.

“My wife got crook and I had to take the girls on the netball run and they didn’t have a trainer, so I gave it a go,” he said.

“When I started, I had done my first aid, but then I did an advanced first aid.

“First aid is designed to take them away and rest them up, but sports training your trying to get them back out on the court.

“We do our best and I think we’ve been reasonably successful over the years.”

The Bendigo-based group has sent four trainers to the event, with two based in Wodonga and two in Albury, and is regularly involved with sporting events around the country.

“We do tennis tournaments, we’ve done Teachers Games, University Games, netball and football,” Murnane said.

“A couple of us went to Canberra two years ago for the Australian under 20 championships.

“It’s just a hobby. We’re farmers and some of the others are tradesmen or teachers.”

Murnane said the trainers have been forced to send a few players to hospital as a pre-caution throughout the week on the Border.

“It’s hard to tell what their pain levels are, so if we’re in doubt, we don’t mess around,” he said.

“We don’t get into diagnosing, we’re only sports trainers, we’re not physios, so we say it could be this and refer them onto physios.

“If we think they shouldn’t play, we tell them so.

“We really enjoy working with the kids and I think the basketball kids are probably the most respectful.

“They come and thank us when we’re done and they’re just good kids because of the system they’ve come through.”

The worst moment Murnane witnessed in his career was on the football field, where two opposing players each suffered broken legs within 10 minutes.

Bendigo Sports Trainers president John Vanston added that the paramount need is to care for the players.

“Obviously with kids of younger age groups, like we have here, it affects them because sometimes its their first injury,” Vanstone said.

“If they do their ankle for the first time, it can be very traumatic.”