After falling painstakingly short last year, Penrith have completed their redemption story – crowned U15 State Champions at the 2025 Netball NSW Senior State Titles.
The Senior State Titles, which were co-hosted this year by Camden and Campbelltown Netball Associations, is the principal state competition for netball athletes across NSW aged from 15 years.
Throughout the King’s Birthday long weekend, thousands of players, coaches, umpires and officials descended on south-west Sydney for the three-day competition.
Following their runners-up status in last year’s U15 Championship Division, Penrith Netball Association were determined more than ever to go one better this season.
At last year’s Senior State Titles Penrith finished second to Sutherland despite ending the tournament on the same amount of wins. The only thing that separated first from second place was ‘for and against’.
Penrith head coach Sarah Blackwood and her team of talented teenagers were eager to not let that happen again.
“We played 19 games over the three days and it’s first past the post. Last year we were equal first but lost on the ‘for and against’ side of it. This year we knew if wanted to win we had to try and do it outright,” Blackwood told the Weekender.
Penrith worked incredibly hard in the lead up to last weekend’s Senior State Titles, training regularly over the past nine months and combining brilliantly as a team.
“They were a very determined bunch of players. I’ve coached a few teams over the years but I’ve never coached a collective group that are so determined and so focused on wanting to achieve that dream of coming first place,” Blackwood said.
However, in classic sports fashion not all things went to plan.
“We lost one of our key players to an ACL four weeks ago,” Blackwood revealed.
“We had to do a reshuffle of players and one of my girls had to learn a whole new position in four weeks. On top of some other bad injuries, the girls overcame a lot this year to get over the line. It was pretty special.”
Penrith only dropped two matches all tournament – proving they were far and away the best U15 Girls team in the entire state.
“This group has got quite a special bond and friendship, which went a long way in being able to come together to work towards that goal,” Blackwood said.
Nathan Taylor
Nathan Taylor is the Weekender's Deputy Editor and Senior Sports Writer. He also compiles the weekly Chatter on the Box TV column. Nathan is an award-winning journalist, who has worked at the Weekender for a decade.