health

The one game you need to watch tomorrow.

Kim

 

 

 

Tomorrow, it’s officially happening.

At 2:28pm, the grand final of the ANZ Championship is taking place at the Hisense Arena in Melbourne. The ANZ Championship is the premier netball league in Australia and New Zealand, so it’s kind of a big deal for the teams who have managed to get to this point.

Last week, we interviewed Madi Robinson of the Melbourne Vixens – a team who managed to get through earlier this month. And last week, Madi didn’t actually know who her team would be versing – either the Queensland Firebirds, or the Kia Magic players (a team from Waikato Bay in New Zealand).

On Monday, the Firebirds narrowly beat Kia Magic, 54-50, to cement their place in the grand final. Go Firebirds!

And so in anticipation of the big game, we had a chat to Kim Ravaillion, a wing defence, wing attack and centre player for the Firebirds.

Kim is a 20-year-old young gun who is not only part of the Queensland state team, but also the Australian Commonwealth team that’s heading over to the games in Glasgow. This has been her debut season in the ANZ Championship, and she’s done incredibly well to be part of the team that’s now heading to the grand final.

After being named the San Remo Most Valuable Player at the 2012 19/U National Championships, Kim became a member of Australia’s 2013 World Youth Netball Championship team and the Coles Netball Test Series games against New Zealand. This year, she has played in the Australian Fast5 team, as well as the Diamonds team during their tour of England in January.

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Here’s what she had to tell us about being a professional netballer:

Kim playing netball

When I was seven, one of my best friends started playing and I thought I would join her. I played locally in Sydney with my friend and my twin sister, and continued from there, through to the AIS.

I’m also a personal trainer – I just have 12 clients on a Thursday and it’s really enjoyable, it takes my mind off everything. Coming from netball, with all that conditioning and training, it gave me a lot of knowledge and my clients love that.

If you really want to achieve your goals, you have to put in the hard yards, and that’s what I tell my clients. Your body has to get used to the exercise and if you go a day without exercise, you just feel guilty. I exercise every day, especially through netball.

Every day, I’ve got to make sure I have my protein, chicken and vegetables. I also love pasta and poached eggs and toast. You’ve got to eat in accordance with how you train.

The Firebirds are doing everything we usually do to get ready for the grand final – we’re feeling like it’s the last game, so we’re ready to let loose and leave nothing in the tank. We’re going to be doing everything we can to win a final – the last time we won was in 2011 and we came second last year, so we’re very hungry to come first this team.

Off court, we’re all friends, but on court, it’s all about goals and winning the trophy – you’ve got to be competitive. And that’s how every athlete should be.

I’m also on the Commonwealth team which I’m very excited about – that’s a goal of mine that I’ve had since I was young. Once the grand final is over we have a week off, and then straight to Glasgow. I haven’t done much to focus on the Commonwealth Games to be honest – when I get the week off, I’ll start thinking about it. I won’t get a chance to relax at all!

Some of the girls on different state teams are all on the Commonwealth team and it’s not weird to go from being rivals to teammates. When you’re representing Australia, it doesn’t matter where everyone comes from, you’re all representing the same country and we’re sisters in arms, there to win.

At the end of the day, everything I achieve just makes me want to keep going. The people and friends you meet along the way, they’re always going to be there.

If you want to be a professional netballer, just don’t give up. Keep pushing harder, go that extra step over everyone else and show the coach that you’re meant to be in the team. That’s all you can really do.

And in other sports news from the week:

– The women’s rugby squad that will travel to the 2014 IRB Women’s Rugby World Cup in August was announced this week. The Wallaroos squad that will travel to Paris includes three regular players from the Qantas Australian Women’s Sevens team. To see the full squad, go here.

– Our Aussie Opals are killing it at their training camp in Canberra as they prepare for the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women in September. Their upcoming schedule – including another camp on the Central Coast, as well as tours to Japan and Europe – is packed, and Opals coach Brendan Joyce says that the players, “have taken it upon themselves to come into camp in the best shape possible and that is the type of attitude we want to instil in the entire program.”

– Our Australian Gliders, the women’s wheelchair basketball team, have landed in Toronto, ready for the 2014 Women’s World Championships. It’s the largest world championship in wheelchair basketball history, so it’s exciting times for our girls, who are up first against the USA.

– Despite losing to the Netherlands in the World Cup, the Hockeyroos are still expected to rise to second in the world rankings. The official world rankings are to be released by the International Hockey Federation next week. Congrats, Hockeyroos!

Have you seen anything in the sporting world that you’d like to talk about?