General News
3 July, 2020
Matéa McKenzie taking the netball world by storm
TWO local netballers have joined forces to star in two new online training programs for netballers across the nation.
TWO local netballers have joined forces to star in two new online training programs for netballers across the nation.
Camperdown’s Sarah Wall and her netball company NETFIT Netball have partnered with Netball Australia to deliver the Suncorp Get Ready Program and the Origin Energy Comeback Challenge with the backing of Suncorp, Woolworths and Origin Energy.
The Get Ready Challenge’s local connection extends beyond Wall, who needed to find a young netballer to be the face of the show.
Enter 11 year-old Camperdown local and budding netballer and actress Matéa McKenzie.
Matéa, who plays in Camperdown District Netball Association’s winter competition, takes on the show’s hosting duties and guides participants through all of her skills, drills and workouts with a little help from a selection of “friends”.
She became involved in the show thanks to her relationship with Wall, with the St Patrick’s primary student “grateful” for the opportunity.
“Sarah thought it would be a good idea to find someone she knew,” Matéa said.
“She had to choose someone between 10 and 13 years of age and instead of conducting auditions she came down and asked Dad if I could do it.
“It’s basically from knowing Sarah and her family (that I got picked), I’ve known Sarah my whole life so I’ve always known about NETFIT.
“They thought it would just be a promo at the start but then it turned into episodes because Suncorp really liked it and wanted me to keep going.”
The Suncorp Get Ready Program combines Matéa’s love of acting and netball and saw a number of shows filmed in the space of three weeks in Camperdown.
Matéa said the filming of each episode followed a schedule and involved “friends” including pro netballers Maddy Proud, Liz Watson and Verity Charles along with Kim Green, Taylah Davies and Wall from NETFIT.