Tara Murray
New Melton netball co-coach Tracy Wallace is keen to build strong relationships with the local netball community.
Wallace and Darren Abela have been appointed co-coaches of the Bloods for next year’s Ballarat Netball League season.
They replace Nichole Gleeson, who has been announced as Bacchus Marsh’s new coach.
Wallace said she hadn’t planned on coaching football-netball again but when Abela suggested it, she thought why not give it another go.
The pair have coached together for more than 11 years at the Westside Saints, which is the representative program for the St Albans Caroline Springs Netball Association.
“I’ve done one year of footy netball in the Geelong league with Grovedale,” she said. “Darren had stepped down from his commitments at Westside but didn’t want to do nothing.
‘He said, ‘do you want to do something together?’ I knew someone at the club and here we go.”
Wallace said while they were coaching the A-grade side they would look to have an impact across the club’s whole netball program, both seniors and juniors.
While the coaching announcement has just been made, Wallace said they had already signed five players and there had been plenty of interest from other players who were keen to come across, including some who have played at a high level.
She said juggling player points would be something they were careful of in deciding their final teams but were keen to have a lot of Melton locals within their teams as well.
Wallace said she would look to try and build a stronger relationship between Westside Saints and Bloods.
“We’ll look to try and get some juniors playing as well,” she said. “We’ll try and put a bit of Westside into Melton and Melton into Westside.
“We have a strong umpire program at Westside as well, so we’ll try and help Melton with theirs as well.”
The club is set to have trials for all sides on November 7 and 16 at Macpherson Park..
Wallace said they had already set some expectations for the season ahead.
The Bloods finished in ninth spot with four wins for the season in 2024.
“It ill be good, I’m looking forward to get up there,” she said. “I want to play finals.
“I’ve met with the president Matt [Kerr] and they want to get the program back up into being a strong program.”
To register for trials: www.facebook.com/share/p/MHjop63YoseW6ggj/
