Tara Murray
For Nicole Weatherley, the Werribee Centrals Football Netball Club is home.
On Saturday, Weatherley becomes just the second netballer and fifth Centurion player overall to play 300 senior games for the club.
Speaking before the game, Weatherley said the club had given her so much.
“It is so exciting,” she said. “When I think about all the girls that have come and gone through the club and how much netball has given me across my life.
“Some of my best friends from netball and Centrals and it’s amazing to still do something that I love.”
Weatherley joined the club when she was 18 and has been around ever since. She had been asked to join the club before that, but there was one thing stopping her.
“When I joined, the Maycock sisters had been asking us to play,” she said. “Emma, now Gilham, is the only other netballer to play 300 games.
“Mum said to me and my sister that you can’t play until you can drive down to Geelong to play.
“I didn’t join until I was 18, it’s been a long time.”
Weatherley has played in seven premierships and coached the 2018 premiership after having her first son Max.
She won the club best and fairest in 2014 and 2015 and was named in the league team of the year in both those years.
She’s been named in the Centurions last two teams of the decades as well and is currently co-coach.
“I was involved in the first three premierships in a row with my junior friends and my sister. I still speak to all those girls now.
“More recently we won four under Lina [Luta] and everyone is still there.”
While the premierships are special, Weatherley said it’s the people that keep her coming back year after year.
“I’ve been going through the photos that people have been sending me,” she said. “Some of them were kids that are now my friends and have grown up over the years as well.
“It’s a caring environment and everyone stays. If they go away they find themselves back at home at the Centrals.”
Weatherley said she wasn’t sure what the celebrations on Saturday would entail. Several former and current teammates have left messages on the club’s social media.
“I hate to make it about me,” she said. “I don’t want it to be about me, it’s about everyone of the girls who are the reason that I have achieved that milestone.”
With another finals series on the cards for the Centurions, Weatherley said another premiership would be a good way to end her playing career.
“I’m 38 later this month, it would be nice to go out on a high and win a premiership,” she said. “My family and husband still allow me to play.
“I’ll still be part of the Centrals, but in a playing capacity it would be a good way to say goodbye I guess.”
