Top A-grade netballers who also have agricultural careers
Making the cut as an A-grade netballer in some of our toughest leagues is a challenge already, but balancing it with a career in ag is all the more impressive.
Meet the women who are at the top of their game in country sport and also have careers in agriculture.
Netball has an enormous following in rural areas, and across the different leagues players compete for the top spots on the court.
We share insights from some of the most talented netball players in southern NSW and Victoria who also work in the rural sector.
LILY JOHNSON, Kalkee
Talented mid-court specialist Lily Johnson moved from South Australia to play A grade netball with Kalkee in the Horsham District league.
When Johnson is not on the court, she can be found riding her horses and competing in barrel racing and break-away roping at rodeos.
She works in the family export fodder business, Johnson’s Asahi, a fifth-generation agricultural business that has been in operation for more than 100 years.
PAIGE MOLONEY, Billabong Crows
When Paige Moloney is not on the netball court as a player and co-coach of the Billabong Crows, she helps out on the family’s cropping property at Oaklands.
Moloney, a familiar face in the Hume league, has been a part of the Crows since her early days in NetSetGO.
As a mid-court player, she proudly dons the centre of wing attack bibs.
She also works for Rabobank in Albury.
INDI AH SAM, Omeo-Benambra
Fifth-generation Omeo cattle producer Indi Ah Sam is as capable on the netball court as she is in the field of agriculture.
She is the captain of Omeo-Benambra’s A grade team and plays in the attack and goals area of the court.
“At the moment, I enjoy playing GA, although I did enjoy GD last year,” Ah Sam said.
“I’ve been playing netball since I was eight and started out with the Omeo midgets.
“I played all through my high school years for Omeo juniors, then Omeo seniors.”
Ah Sam and her family have a fine-wool Merino operation and also run cattle.
The family owns the Round Hill Merino Stud, and they sell rams annually at the Gippsland Stud Merino Breeders Sale in September.
“We also breed Hereford and Hereford cross Shorthorn cattle, which we sell at the high country weaner sales in Omeo in March,” she said.
COURTNEY MENZIES, Osborne
Hume league premiership-winning player and speedy mid-court specialist Courtney Menzies is a regular face in the Osborne A grade team.
She has a career spanning 22 seasons and started playing A grade, aged 16, and in that time has also been a coach.
When she is not giving it her all on the netball court, Menzies can be found working as a service officer at the AGnVET Boree Creek branch in southern NSW.
She is also equally comfortable jumping on the header or driving the tractor and chaser bin during the busy harvest period.
Menzies enjoys the farming lifestyle and also regularly helps out with lamb marking or shearing.
DEMI FOOTT, Birchip-Watchem
Birchip-Watchem A grader Demi Foott is a powerhouse on the court and also plays an integral role in the family farming operation.
Together with husband Lachy, they farm at Birchip, Watchem and Nullawil.
“I do the payroll, help with meals and assist during harvest,” she said.
In addition, Foott runs group exercise classes in the region.
She has been playing netball since taking up the sport as a NetSetGO player.
SARAH HILLIER, Coolamon Hoppers
Coolamon Hoppers coach Sarah Hillier spends her time on the court and also works as a technical support officer in the dairy industry.
Hillier, originally from Greta is now living in Coolamon in southern NSW and works for Rivalea Australia.
She started playing netball as a 9-year-old, and her favourite position is goal attack.
However, she joked that every “attacker” secretly wants to be a defender too at some stage.
APRIL KENNEDY, Collingullie Wagga Demons
The Kennedy sisters in southern NSW are just as successful on the netball court as they are in the field.
April Kennedy works for Delta Ag Group at Yerong Creek in merchandise and sales and she is also an A grade goal shooter with Collingullie.
The Kennedy family has five girls, who all enjoy netball and two boys, who are keen footballers.
Kennedy has spent the past two seasons at Collingullie and, before that, played netball at Osborne after first starting out as a five-year-old in NetSetGO.
She said the rivalry among the sisters in her family is kept to a minimum because they all play different positions.
Her mum Sarah was also a keen player and is still actively involved with the club at Osborne.
GRACE KENNEDY, Osborne
Grace Kennedy is just as handy on the court as during sowing or harvest at the property where she works in the eastern Riverina.
The Osborne A grade defender also works on a farm near the iconic footy and netball grounds that are known as “the club without a town”.
Kennedy said her favourite position is goal defence and she has won premierships in the Hume league as a junior and senior player and also a coach.
She coached back-to-back under-11s premiership players in 2022-23.
HOLLY WEBB, Stratford
Holly Webb was a member of Stratford’s A grade premiership team last season after returning from Lindenow four years ago.
The Swans are making a strong bid to go back-to-back with a new look line-up after beating previously undefeated Lucknow recently.
Webb works in the family dairy operation where they milk 4000 cows across four farms.
“It’s quite big,” she said.
She also rides show jumping horses locally and interstate.
“The ones I’m riding now are ones we’ve bred,” she said.
CONNIE RULE, Southern Mallee Thunder
After growing up at Cummins on the Eyre Peninsula, Connie Rule has resurrected her netball career in the top level of the Wimmera league.
She works with partner Rory O’Halloran, who also plays footy for the Thunder, and his dad Ashley on their cropping and sheep farm north of Jeparit.
“I was playing on Kangaroo Island for a fair while, but the travelling got a bit much,” she said.
“It’s probably been four years since I played proper competitive netball.
“I’ve been very lucky to get chosen in A grade.”
Rule played mostly in defence in her comeback season.
ALANA WEBSDALE, Lindenow
A state representative in her teen years, Alana Websdale returned to playing last year after more than a decade out of the game and finished runner-up in the East Gippsland league A best and fairest.
She has worked at Bairnsdale’s Main Street Veterinary Clinic for 11 years and helps out on a farm her parents, Anthony and Jenny, run that initially began with a purchase of 40 hectares at Lindenow South.
It has expanded and they presently run 500 Merino sheep.
Websdale plays goal defence and was appointed captain this year.
“We’re pretty much a brand new side with only about half of the girls from last year still playing,” she said.
DEE COMMINS, Swifts Creek
A self-described “Covid refugee”, Dee Commins worked in rural finance in Melbourne before heading back to the family farm near Swifts Creek at the start of the pandemic.
The former Geelong Grammar student is co-coach of Swifts Creek’s A grade team with schoolteacher Joanne Bradbury.
“I’ve enjoyed being back at home and getting involved in the local community and haven’t gone back yet,” she said.
On the farm, which trades as Meringo Pastoral Company, Commins works alongside her brother Al and does “all the book work”.
The family farming operation, which predominantly breeds Angus cattle, regularly fetches some of the highest prices at the Mountain Calf Sales each March.
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