THREE Tamborine Mountain netballers were selected to umpire at the 2024 Junior State Age netball competition at Downey Park Netball Association.
Tallin Taylor and Abbey Tihi, 18, were selected to represent the Tamborine Mountain Netball Association and Leiawyn Taylor was selected by the Hinterland District Netball Association to represent Jimboomba who didn’t have enough umpires to send.
This is the third consecutive year that Tamborine Mountain players have been chosen to umpire at States, and the girls feel very honoured.
“This is my third year umpiring at states,” says Tallin, who has played two state events previously.
“When I was selected, I was really happy as I didn’t think highly of myself in regards to umpiring,” says Abbey.
Abbey has been playing netball for 14 years, since she was four years old and has been umpiring for the past three years.
“The process of being selected started at the end of last year when people were asked if they would like to be a part of the umpire squad for 2024,” she says.
The squad then umpired the season try-outs and netball carnivals.
Umpire coaches watched the girls at these events and made comments on how they could improve.
“Based on how well we did, they then had a meeting and sent out an email telling us that we were selected,” says Abbey.
“For the first day, I will have six games, and on the second day I will have five. My time slot is in the morning, but I will stay for the whole day to support the other umpires within the squad.”
Under 12, 13 and 14 girls played across the entire competition from June 29 to July 2. The junior boys played on July 1 and 2.
