“PROUD and shocked” was the way Macorna defender Laura Bennie summed up her emotions, after winning the Reita Pay Memorial A Grade Netball Best & Fairest win at the Golden Rivers Football Netball League presentation night on Monday evening.
Bennie was a popular winner, drawing raucous cheers every time her name was read out – which was often – with the runaway leader claiming her first league Best & Fairest award, polling 26 votes to beat Murrabit’s Mary Yates-Ward on 20 votes.
Bennie has not only been a player with Macorna since 2018, but also umpires most weeks in the Golden Rivers. Having played most of her netball in the Bendigo Football League, Bennie took the coaching reins at the Tigers in 2018 and 2019 – but it was this season where she took her game to new heights, with the now former coach handing the reigns to Tiff Bartram at the start of the 2020 season.
The move clearly agreed with Bennie, with her competitive nature and natural ability major factors in Macorna climbing into the finals this year – before suffering a heart breaking 39-28 loss to Murrabit last weekend’s Preliminary Final – and ending the Tigers’ season.
“To take this out tonight, I’m in absolute shock and in many ways, this is a credit to Tiff (Bartram) because of the way she develops and grows us a playing group – her skills and knowledge are just second to none,” Bennie said.
“I’m all about teamwork and we are a team – you don’t go out there and play a team sport for yourself, it’s all about the team around you.”
“I play for them, I play for my coach and not just them, but also the club – that’s who I represent and I’m proud to be a Macornian.”
“This is honestly one of the best teams I’ve ever played with, there’s such a vast difference in ages and yet we’ve all come together and we all have each other’s backs.”
“I know that I could call any one of those girls and they would drop everything in an instant and come help me if I ever needed it and they know I’d do the same for them – Tiff is an absolute saint and I just love her and all my teammates so much.”
While 2022 has certainly ended on a high note personally for Bennie, it certainly didn’t start that way – with the 34-year-old not only changing careers but also returning to university to study. The changes in Bennie’s personal life meant that she could no longer dedicate the time she had previously to her team and her training – which in turn brought about a whole new set of emotions and stresses to deal with.
“I travel a lot now because of my job, so I can’t get to training as much as I’d like to anymore, unfortunately,” Bennie said.
“Tiff and all of my teammates were super supportive of me, but me being me, I like to be hands on and my philosophy has always been that if you don’t train, you don’t play.”
“Because of that and combined with a number of work and personal stresses, it started to cause me a great deal of anxiety issues at times early on and throughout the season and I found it hard to process that.”
While Bennie was battling her inner demons throughout the early rounds of the season, a chance encounter with one of her junior buddies – 12-year-old Abbey Wishart – would be the catalyst for a massive change in fortunes for the greatly admired Bennie.
“We were doing a warm-up back in one of the early games of the season and one of my teammates had to step away for a minute, so I called Abbey over to help me throw some balls and I played an absolute blinder that day,” Bennie said.
“So, I said to her that I needed her to be there the next weekend and she was and again I played well.”
“Having Abbey there just reminded me that netball is all about fun and helped calm me down again – she’d come up and give me high fives during quarter breaks and the like, it’s those little that just change your whole outlook on not only the game but life as well.”
“She’s my little inspiration – she’s a little Macorna legend in the making and from the moment I met her, she just has this spark about her and I really have her to thank for me being here tonight.”
While Bennie was quick to praise her teammates, coach and young Abbey for their contributions to her success this season, the goal defender who grew up playing juniors for Gisborne saved special thanks for those who she is closest to the most – although, not for the reason most would expect.
“I’d like to thank dad for cooking the chips at the Macorna home games every week,” Bennie said.
“Dad would drive up every Friday night before a home game just to cook the chips – as soon as the canteen doors would open, he’d be in there with his little apron on with the Macorna emblem and his name on it, which mum made for him.”
“I’d have to go in there and ask them to kick him out of the canteen before our game just so he could come and watch me play – it’s a two and half hour drive for them and mum and she would also drive up once a month to watch me as well, which was absolutely amazing.”
