A TOP 10 representative treble will be the goal of the Bathurst Netball Association when its leading young talents line up at this year's Junior State Titles.
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Bathurst's under 12, 13 and 14 representative teams will line up in division two for their respective age groups at the three-day titles, which will be staged at Baulkham Hills.
The under 14s will face competition from 17 other associations, including familiar foes Dubbo and Orange.
Amongst the outfits in the same division as the Bathurst under 13s is an invitational team from Fiji known as the Grasshoppers, while the under 12s will make their debut at state level as one of 19 division two hopefuls.
They will face a packed schedule of at least six games per day, but Bathurst Netball Association president Tina Muller is hopeful each of the teams in yellow and blue can rank inside the top 10.
"We are trying to finish as high as we can, the 14s are relatively the same sort of team which has stuck together, there are a couple of new faces in the 13s and for the 12s, it's their first run at it," she said.
"But they've all been getting some good results. The carnivals in Sydney are really good as it gives you an idea of who you are going to be against at state titles, it gives you a bit of an idea how we are going to go.
"We are hopeful of being able to get top 10, because we have got some new faces and new combinations this year, it will be a little bit of a surprise to see how they finish."
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As Muller indicated, the Bathurst representatives have attended carnivals in Sydney already this season to aid their development and help prepare them for the challenge which is the Junior State Titles.
It is a strategy which Bathurst has used for a number of seasons and one Muller feels will serve them well in their bids for top 10 results at the state titles.
"All the players have been preparing well, we've been getting some good results at carnivals," she said.
"We tend to take all our rep teams to Sydney a fair bit these days, which over the years seems to be working.
"We've gone from a middle div three association six years ago to now being high in the top 10 for the div 2 comp, so it seems to be paying off doing that travel to Sydney to get that stronger competition.
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"They are going to face some very strong competition ... all those Sydney teams just have a massive pool of players to pull from.
"But the fact that we're up that at that level and competing with them when we don't have anywhere near their numbers trialling for teams is really good.
"It shows that the coaches' hard work and the kids' hard work is paying off. We've really pushed our coaches to get high accreditation and get a bit more experience and I think that pays off."
The titles run Saturday to Monday.
