A club built out of necessity than of history that has bred success in the State League is celebrating 25 years.
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It has been a remarkable feat for the Cavaliers Netball Club that have claimed eight open titles and a further 11 in the 21-and-under grand final wins alone that include last year's double in front of home fans at the Silverdome.
Club historian and author Chris Carstens, who worked on the book Courting Victory with Bret Salinger to mark the opening 20 seasons of the Cavaliers, believed nobody could envisage how smoothly it would evolve from scratch.
"Unlike most of the other State League clubs, it was created as a purpose-built club, really," Carstens said.
"When it was first established, there was only one team in the North that was in the State League playing.
"So a group of people got together and put in a submission at the time."
The Northern Hawks that went by a number of names before the Cavaliers arrived were fed by NTNA club CCT Gee Tees that initially was founded in 1970 and had top depth of talent at its disposal.
It ensured Cavaliers put a greater emphasis on junior development from the start, but the venture's immediate success came as a shock.
The 21-and-under team were the state premiers in its inaugural season and added the open title the next year.
The open side of 1999 in the club's fourth season went through the home and away campaign undefeated until a shock grand final loss.
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
That was the year that a 14-year-old Dannie Carstens had to almost be reluctantly dragged off the street to play.
This was after her oldest sister was lining up for the Northern Saints, now Hawks.
Less than the 25 seasons since, she is one of three hall-of-fame inductees along with storied figures, Tracey Cook and Amanda Cowley, which stand as its most influential.
The longest-serving games holder and a coach for close to a decade, Carstens looks back at her time most fondly.
"I used to be pretty complacent about netball - I had only played it for a bit of fun because really I was playing basketball as well," she said.
"A good friend of mine said to me, 'come on, we'll try out for Cavs development squad', so it was sort of through friendships we had ended up going there. As the years went on, I certainly grew a lot more competitive."
Cowley is heading up a function to commemorate the 25th season milestone on May 9 to acknowledge past players and committee, with a focus on 150 gamers and induction of life members.
The club will also mark the occasion at a home game.
"It's on the cards - they're secretly planning all these little different things behind closed doors," Carstens said.
"It'll be certainly acknowledged and recognised then."
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