Michelle Anderson to play her 350th game for Barnawartha

Anderson, 42, has played in six premierships at the club and coached a seventh, with no plans to hang up the dress any time soon.

Now heading up the Tigers' B-grade side, Anderson will mark the milestone with a home game against Rutherglen in round one of the Tallangatta & District Netball Association season.

The body may feel a little sorer post-match than it once did but Anderson, who's represented the club across four decades, insists finding the motivation to pull on the yellow and black has never been easier.

"I'm still so competitive," Anderson said.

"I have a fire in my belly - as soon as I step on the court, I'm like Beast Mode, constant.

"When that starts to die down, that's when I need to back off but while I've still got that fire and that competitive streak in me, I want to keep playing.

"My brain still says I can still do it and I feel like I'm the fittest I've ever been in my life.

"I'm a lot fitter now than I was in my twenties, which is crazy.

"After I had children, I started to put on a little bit of weight, which I didn't like, so that got me into running to better my health and fitness.

"Now I exercise every day and I'm feeling the benefits."

Anderson followed her now husband Gordon to Barnawartha in 1999 and never looked back.

"I find it a privilege to have been at the club for that long and to have played most of my netball there," she said.

"I wasn't expecting that I'd be around the club for very long, I was just there to play a little bit of netball, but now I call it my home.

"I have played elsewhere but I always find my way back to Barny because it's my special place, it's where I feel at home.

"Playing 350 games there feels really good, it's quite special.

"I've made some really close friends playing there, lifelong friends.

"My sister is also at the club so it's a real family affair.

"My nieces play there and my daughters are now there too so it feels like a real country, family club that you want to be part of and want to be around.

"It's the friends I've made that makes me want to keep going back."

Anderson has taken the court with her daughters, Imogen, 18, and Brooke, 16, and she will line up alongside Imogen in the B-grade this season.

"I actually played while pregnant with both my girls," Anderson revealed.

"I actually played up until nearly eight months with Imogen.

"We lost one of the finals and then I had her two weeks later!

"Both my girls have grown up around the netball club.

"I had them and went straight back into netball as soon as my body had recovered."

Brooke is playing under-17s this year, while the prospect of having Imogen as a team-mate gives Anderson a real warm glow.

"It's an amazing feeling to be able to play with your daughters on the court," she said.

"To have them alongside you, knowing where they started and where they've come is really great.

"Imogen is very respectful and you'll never meet a more resilient girl.

"She's taken on a gap year and she's working with me, so I've seen her in a whole new light this year.

"I don't really see her as my daughter as such, I see her as a friend, a work colleague and a team-mate, which is amazing."

ALSO IN SPORT

Anderson, a life member at Barnawartha, also serves as the club's umpire co-ordinator and is central to operations in Tigerland.

"Michelle has made an enormous contribution to the club," Tigers secretary and close friend Judy Loorham said.

"The club's run on volunteers and without people like Michelle, it's very difficult to get things done.

"She's a perennial best-and-fairest or runner-up, she's had plenty of success on court and to reach 350 games is simply incredible."

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