Casey wins a Victorian Netball League licence in partnership with AFL’s Melbourne Football Club.

Netball in Melbourne’s south-east is set to boom with the announcement Netball Victoria has awarded the Cranbourne-based Casey Demons one of 10 VNL licences.

Netball in Melbourne’s south-east is set to boom with the announcement Netball Victoria has awarded the Cranbourne-based Casey Demons one of the 10 licences to play in the state’s elite competition, the Victorian Netball League, for the next five seasons.

The Demons will join Boroondara Express, City West Falcons, DC North East Blaze, Geelong Cougars, Hawks Netball, Melbourne University Lightning, Peninsula Waves, Southern Saints and Ariels VCNA in fielding Championship Division, Division 1 and 19&under sides in the state’s premier club competition from next season.

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THE LICENCES ARE ANNOUNCED

The experienced Robynn Pym will be Casey Demons’ inaugural coach Picture: Lawrence Pinder

Rebekah Bogos, a Casey Netball Association board member who will be the Casey Demons’ inaugural VNL president, was all smiles when the official announcement was made on Thursday.

“We are ecstatic and over the moon,’’ she said. “The VNL licence really complements 80 netball divisions in this area and completes our player pathway.

“We’ve always had strong junior pathways but now we can have our kids go all the way through and offer them the elite end as well.

“It’s been a long-term goal, so to be successful is amazing.’’

Bogos and Cindy Bell worked tirelessly on the Casey submission for six months.

“They came out from Netball Victoria in March and we’ve been working on it all that time,” she said. “The last couple of months have been a waiting game but this week has been amazing. It’s much needed for the area.

“We were just thrilled to receive the news on Tuesday and we were told we were one of the top two submissions. We are just so proud of all the work we’ve done.’’

“For the City of Casey it really just tops off that sporting precinct now and to have netball and an avenue for females to play elite sport in our area is phenomenal.”

The Demons have wasted no time appointing a top shelf mentor in former Peninsula Waves and Boroondara Express coach Robynn Pym.

“We have appointed our head coach, Robynn Pym,” Bogos said. “She is well known in netball circles and part of the Netball Victoria elite pathways. We are keen to recruit some elite players…and add some local talent. We aim to be competitive in our first season across all the sections.”

There’s plenty of talent in the former SEFNL ranks

The association has also formed a strong partnership with AFL’s Melbourne Football Club and VFL’s Casey Demons.

“It’s terrific news, we’re so excited,” Casey Netball Association general manager Debbie Schramm said on Thursday morning “We had to keep it under wraps until 10am but now social media and the phone calls have started.

“It was about 2013 when we started thinking that this was where we wanted to be.

“It’s taken five years to work on things, it’s been a long time in the making.”

In announcing the 10 licences, Netball Victoria praised the high quality submission put forward by Casey while Schramm said the outstanding relationship between her organisation and the council had been pivotal.

“I would say it (the success) was a combination of a number of factors,” she said.

“Forming a partnership with the council (had been important) — the basketball, the council and the netball.”

Monash University Storm joined forces with AFL’s Hawthorn and Hawks Netball was born Picture: Grant Treeby

The association calls Casey Stadium in Cranbourne home, another factor in earning the Demons the nod.

Completed in the first half of 2017, the stadium features 10 full-sized basketball and netball courts and facilities for badminton, volleyball and futsal.

“It’s an amazing venue,” Schramm said. “They put in a show court and it can seat about 1800. We had a VNL game last year between Boroondara and Peninsula and it was one of the biggest crowds they’d had all year.”

The association draws players from suburbs in Melbourne’s fastest growing region.

“We go from Langwarrin to Tooradin, Berwick, Beaconsfield, Lyndhurst, Narre Warren even in to Dandenong,” Schramm said. “It’s a huge area and now all the new estates going in to Clyde.

“We’re all on a high, but there’s a lot of work to be done.”

The new VNL season will commence at the State Netball Hockey Centre next April.

The Casey Indoor Leisure Centre was a work in progress, it’s now one of the best stadiums in the state.