Australia’s most capped national league coach and current coach of GIANTS Netball, Julie Fitzgerald, has been appointed Head Coach of the 2020/21 Australian Development Squad.
Bringing 343 games of experience to the position, Fitzgerald has been reappointed to the role she occupied in 2019, when she led the squad to a successful tournament against England A and New Zealand A in Auckland.
Assisting Fitzgerald will be three specialist coaches, former Diamond and South Australian Sport Institute Netball coach Jenny Borlase as Shooting Specialist, former Diamond and NSW Swifts Assistant Coach Rebecca Bulley as Defence Specialist and experienced national league player and state pathway coach Elissa Kent as Centre Court Specialist.
The Australian Development and Australian 21 and Under Squads will gather for a five-day training camp from 14-18 March at a location to be confirmed in the coming weeks.
Fitzgerald will work closely with 21 and Under Head Coach Kylee Byrne to deliver the high performance camp that will bring together the nation’s most promising athletes for four days of on court development in preparation for a full 2021 netball calendar.
As the 21 and Under Squad continue preparations for the Netball World Youth Cup set to take place in Fiji from 2-11 December, the final coaching panel for the group has been finalised by Netball Australia.
Head Coach Byrne will be joined by current Origin Diamonds specialist coach and former Australian captain Michelle Den Dekker and current Netball Victoria and Victorian Institute of Sport coach Cathy Fellows.
Netball Australian Executive General Manager of Performance Stacey West is thrilled with the new appointments across the two squads.
“Netball Australia could not be more pleased to have such high calibre coaches in Julie and Kylee leading our two major pathway squads, not to mention the elite group of assistant coaches that has been built to support them,” she said.
“Between the Australian Development Squad and our 21 and Under group, there is some incredible talent coming through our pathway and we are confident that the program that Julie and Kylee will deliver over the next year is building a strong future for Australian elite netball.”
West is also looking forward to bringing the pathway squads together for the March camp.
“Due to COVID-19, there has been several delays in being able to bring our pathway squads together for a camp, so to have this locked away and have five days of solid court work and training planned is really exciting. I know all of our coaches and athletes are counting the seconds until they can get out there on court.”
To limit complications around border closures at short notice, Netball Australia will confirm the location of the camp closer to the date.
