Ahead of their emotional 2024 North Central Netball Association grand final showdown against Wedderburn, Charlton netballers and Navies coach Annie Hockey pay a heartfelt tribute to their inspiration, Maddi Fitzpatrick, who lost her brave battle with cancer earlier this year.
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00:00Okay, we're joined by Kirstie McKenzie and the coach of Charlton, Annie Hockey, on what
00:17is a very special grand final week and the Navies are through to the grand final in A
00:20grade up against Wetherburn.
00:23It's obviously been a very tough year up here at Charlton due to the passing earlier in
00:27the season of Maddy Fitzpatrick, but the girls have done their best and got through.
00:32Thanks for joining us girls.
00:33No worries.
00:34We'll obviously start with the question, you know it's obviously been an emotional time
00:38for the club this season and especially the playing group, how's everyone held up throughout
00:42the season and in particular what has been no doubt a rollercoaster grand final week
00:47for everybody?
00:48Yeah, it's obviously has been a really emotional year for us all, but I think we're a really
00:55great community and a great club and everyone's really gotten around each other and really
00:58supported each other so, I mean, we're here, we got through it, but you know, it's been hard.
01:04I think the phrase doing it for Maddy was penned pretty early in the piece, so it's
01:25fair to say, sadly, it wasn't looking too good early on when you were at 1 and 4 in
01:30the season.
01:31What was running through the mind then?
01:33Oh look, it was pretty rough when we got to the halfway mark and we hadn't won too many
01:37games, but I think it really came down to we had a lot of our senior girls unavailable
01:43for the first half of the season, we had a few injuries that put some girls out and then
01:47we were just relying solidly on our junior players to fill those positions.
01:52So it was just kind of thinking about trying to rebuild the team from the halfway and just
01:57get to where we needed to be, which is here.
02:03Alright, after that bad start, you were able to grind out a 42-40 win over Donald to arrest
02:11the slide in Round 7.
02:13When you look back from where you are now, that was obviously a pretty significant win
02:17in the scheme of things.
02:19Yeah, I guess that's probably when we started to realise that we were probably capable of
02:25a bit more than we initially thought we were and I guess that's probably when we really
02:28started to knuckle down and get around each other and yeah, that's probably when the fight
02:32started I reckon.
02:33What do you think has been responsible for the turnaround?
02:36You know, I think we finally got a solid 7 out on this team and we just really, really
02:41wanted to show up for Maddie and really prove that we could do it this year and we had the
02:45squad to do it and we just really fought every week, every game from Round 9 we just took
02:51it as it was our elimination final and we really knuckled down and got into it, worked
02:56hard at trainings and luckily for us it showed on the court and the girls put up a really
03:00big fight all the way through.
03:20Yeah, this Saturday aside, if you happen to get over the top of Wetterburn, but no win
03:24probably stands out more during the season than the round that was designated towards
03:28Maddie.
03:29That was against Sea Lake Nandali Tigers, that must have been a really special occasion
03:32for the club.
03:33Yeah, it was.
03:34It was really impressive that the club and the league could get together and do that
03:39for Maddie and Patrick and everyone that's had their battle with cancer so yeah, that
03:44was a really special round to win and really emotional but yeah, really glad that we could
03:49get that win for Maddie.
03:54Three, two, one.
04:06Well done, Maddie.
04:07Yeah.
04:20As we know and everybody in the north central knows that Wetterburn has been a proud club
04:23for a long time and a very successful club for what seemed forever probably.
04:28How do the navies get over the top of them on Saturday?
04:31I think we just need to play our own game.
04:34I mean they're tough, they're always tough but I guess we've just got to believe in ourselves
04:40and trust each other and back each other and just keep doing what we've been doing and
04:44hopefully that's enough.
04:45Yep.
04:51Obviously a special part of this season, you have Maddie's mum Kim on the sidelines
04:55as team manager.
04:56What does this mean to the group?
04:58I think it's been huge for the playing group to have Kim on the sidelines.
05:01Not only does she bring such a wealth of knowledge and support to the girls, it's been great
05:06to know that we are doing it for Maddie but we're also doing it for Kim and to just show
05:10that we can show up for her and her family.
05:13We've got a point to prove this year I think and having Kim there, it just means everything
05:17to the girls.
05:19I think for a lot of us who've been at Trump for a long time, it's not really important.
05:23Fitz isn't there, she's been here for so long and she's just got an amazing wealth of knowledge
05:28so we'd love to be able to do it for Maddie.
05:32I suppose when it's all said and done, can we do it for Maddie one more time?
05:35Definitely.
05:40My favourite Maddie is probably back in 2022 when we last played in a grand final.
05:47I was lucky enough to play alongside Maddie.
05:50Unfortunately we couldn't do it this time so hopefully this weekend we can bring her
05:55home for her.
05:57I've got a lot of memories of Maddie.
05:59Probably a big one was when she was quite little, sort of five, six and she'd come along
06:04with Fitz training and she'd just blow the whistle and she was always on me.
06:08She'd just call me for Step, even if it was Step and I'd just get very annoyed with her.
06:12But yeah, a lot of special memories.
06:15This weekend means a lot to Chloe and I and our whole playing group and the Charlton community.
06:24Mads and Fitzpatrick family are just a huge, huge family in the Charlton community.
06:30The last couple of weeks Maddie's been there watching us, helping us get along across the
06:36line and hopefully we can do it for her this weekend.