Rain, hail or shine, you’ll find Jarrad Walker training hard at Nar Nar Goon Netball Club. 66300 Picture: Jarrod Potter
By Jarrod Potter
JARRAD Walker will head from Nar Nar Goon to represent Australia in men’s mixed netball at the invitational championships held on the Gold Coast, involving teams from around the Asia-Pacific region.
Walker, 27, originally from Serpentine near Bendigo, has been selected to play for Australia for the third time. He was part of the 2006 and 2007 teams.
“Been playing for Victoria since 2006; I moved down to Melbourne and got involved in the sport when one of my friends asked me to come along. I played my first nationals in 2006 and made the Aussie team back then as well,” Walker said.
“Played in the Aussie team for 2006 and 2007 before pulling the pin on it, cause it’s self-funded, it wears you down a bit.
“Had some time off from everything last year and played a little bit of social netball. Went back this year and made a real effort to get fit and work hard to get back into the team.”
Playing mostly as goalkeeper or in goal defence, Walker is happy to see men’s netball gaining more attention and attracting more players.
“The perception of (men’s netball) is getting better and getting noticed more,” Walker said. “We’ve got a great group of administrators and directors at the Australian and Victorian level, who are doing a great job to promote the sport. There was a test series between Australia and New Zealand last year. It was played around Melbourne and saw some big crowds. One of the tests was played in Pakenham, so it’s starting to get bigger.”
Walker has played netball most of his life, picking it up to spend time with his family as a kid.
“Started playing in the country and I just got involved because my mum and my sister were playing,” Walker said. “I would’ve been young too, around 10 years old.”
Walker is also the coach of Nar Nar Goon’s B grade netball team, after co-coaching the A grade team for the last couple of years.
“B grade is going pretty well, sitting third at the moment. They’re coming along really nicely. Had a lot of girls at Nar Nar Goon this year, so it takes a little while to get the team settled. Now they’ve settled and we’re starting to reap the rewards.”
Studying physical education at RMIT Bundoora, Walker is keen to help children improve fitness and develop the passion of the girls for sport.
“I love being involved in sport and being a PE teacher helps combine teaching kids about sport and fitness. I’ve always enjoyed working with kids, so it’s a great combination of the two,” Walker added.
