Live stream: Lily Cubby on culture, club and family influence at Netball Australia First Nations tournament

Lily Cubby will have one person on her mind when she takes the court to deliver a stacked Queensland line-up ultimate glory at the inaugural First Nations tournament. Find out how to watch LIVE from Friday.

Everything Lily Cubby does in netball is for her late dad Cecil.

Getting her Murrawari heritage from her dad, who passed away in his sleep from a brain aneurysm when his daughter was six, the now 21-year-old Cubby is conscious of representing her father every time she steps on court.

It will be most important when Cubby prepares to star for Queensland in this weekend’s inaugural First Nations tournament at Melbourne’s State Netball Centre.

Every match of the national pilot tournament will be exclusively live streamed on KommunityTV across all News Corp Australia digital mastheads.

FIND OUT HOW TO WATCH THE FIRST NATIONS TOURNAMENT LIVE

“Everything I do for my netball, it’s for him (dad). I know he is always here watching me and I want to make him proud the most, because he is who I get all my Indigenous heritage from,” Cubby said.

Titans netball HART Sapphire Series. Pictured: Lily Cubby

The goal attack speaks with pride when talking about her family’s hometown Goodooga - a small Indigenous community of roughly 250 people in northwest NSW where Cubby spent the first few years of her life.

Work, study and sport commitments make it hard for the Brisbane-based netballer to get home but she aims to make them proud through her endeavours, knowing not everyone back home has been given the same opportunities she has.

“All the time, they’re always supporting me on Facebook, watching live streams and keeping up that way,” she said.

“The support is enormous.

“I also want to give the young kids back home someone to look at, a role model, so that they can go down the same path and know they can achieve anything they want to.”

Lily Cubby named in Black Swans squad 2024. Picture: Netball Queensland

A “surreal” 2024 saw Cubby play for the inaugural First Nations national team - the Black Swans - alongside winning a premiership with Ipswich Jets in Queensland’s state Sapphire Series and lining up for the Future Firebirds in the first-ever Super Netball reserves competition.

Ticking off another first through this weekend’s Firsts Nations tournament, Cubby said she was most excited for her teammates who were getting their first chance to play in a high performance setting.

“Being part of Black Swans, it’s nice to see something else come from it so it’s a step in the right direction,” she said.

“But I’m also excited for a lot of the girls who haven’t had an opportunity like this as well, to get to showcase their talent out on court and really put their name out there.”

Queensland will go into the three-day tournament highly regarded with four Black Swans in their line up - Cubby, Brook Lacey, Kiera Heffernan and Jayden Molo - while coached by indigenous netball legend Sharon Finnan-White, one of just three Indigenous Diamonds players in the team’s history.

Opening their tournament against ACT on Friday night, Cubby - who is joined in the side by cousin Renee, a smart and speedy midcourter - expected Queensland’s versatility to be a strength while leaning into a moving goaling system without a tall, holding shooter in their ranks.

“I think that’s something different to look forward to, playing a different type of game in that circle,” Cubby said.

“It’s something to throw at the other teams they probably won’t be expecting.”

Originally published as Live stream: Lily Cubby on culture, club and family influence at Netball Australia First Nations tournament