The premiership winning West Coast Fever and WA Netball legend Jill McIntosh have been honoured at tonight’s WA Hall of Champions.
The 2022 premiership team was jointly awarded the Herb Elliott Medal with soccer superstar Samantha Kerr. The Medal, which is named after the champion West Australian Olympic middle distance runner, acknowledges a team or individual which celebrates an influential sporting moment.
First inducted into the Hall of Champions in 1993, McIntosh’s elevation to Legend Status makes her the 12th Legend of WA sport. A tall and talented centre-court player, McIntosh played in Australia’s 1983 World Netball Championship victory in Singapore. She moved into coaching and achieved a remarkable win-loss ratio with the national side, securing 88 wins from 94 Tests including two World Championships and two Commonwealth Games gold medals.
A Netball WA Life Member, her contribution to the game in WA is also reflected by the GIG WANL Medal, for the best and fairest player, being named in her honour.
West Coast Fever Coach Dan Ryan said the accolades highlighted the strength of West Australian netball.
“It is an amazing honour for our team to be recognised on the same night that Jill McIntosh was elevated to a Legend of the Hall of Champions. I want to congratulate her on that massive honour and her ongoing contribution to netball,” Ryan said.
“Our historic premiership, 25 years in the making is an extremely influential moment in WA sport and we are very honoured as a club that our victory over Melbourne Vixens in the grand final has been recognised.
“At the start of last season, we talked openly as a team about what we wanted to achieve and how we were going to get there. We played our best netball on grand final day in front of 13,000 Fever fans at RAC Arena and we created memories that will last a lifetime.
“We hope our performance will influence more people to get involved in our sport at all levels.
"We started our pre-season campaign last week. Now we need to climb that mountain again and we cannot wait for the season to start against Melbourne Vixens in March.”
