Defending A-grade premiers Olympians start new Katanning Netball Association season with a win

The new Katanning Netball Association season officially started on Saturday as nerves and excitement filled players from around the region in round one.

The recent relaxation of mask rules left players beaming from ear to ear as both junior and senior grades hit the court.

The opening round had plenty of great sportsmanship as teams mixed up players and produced terrific gameplay.

As always the juniors were a delight to watch with plenty of new youngsters playing their first game of netball.

Katanning and Kojonup brought a great atmosphere yet again between players and spectators, who were in doubt a couple of months ago because of State Government restrictions when the season was initially being planned.

Seniors had all teams pushing themselves after many months break since last season.

The A-grade competition began with an exciting battle between last year’s grand final teams.

Defending champions Olympians 1 proved too strong yet again for All Stars 1, finishing winners 56-31 at the final whistle.

Cardinals Force could not muster the rhythm to keep the scoring up against Kojonup 1, with the latter prevailing 60-16.

Both games in A-reserve were close, with Kojonup 2 taking the win against Kia Ora with a two-goal result (31-29).

All Stars 2 kept their winning streak from last season going as they defeated Broomehill, 48-43.

The B-grade division was also exciting as a lot of junior players who were not able to play in a junior competition among their own age group have stepped up to join the senior teams and they all showed great skill.

Cardinals Fever made Dumbleyung 1 work hard for a 26-23 win. There was just one goal the difference between Kojonup 4 and Olympians 2 at half-time but the latter finished victorious, 39-34.

Kojonup 3 just could not scrape through against Olympians 3, losing a close game 34-36.

There was only one C-grade game played with the Cardinals derby rescheduled to another date.

This left Dumbleyung 2 and All Stars 3 to face off and Dumbleyung 2 could not keep their strength as All Stars recorded a big win 54-15.