Kangaroo Flat captain and centre Chelsea Sartori's 2024 Betty Thompson Medal acceptance speech and interview.
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00:00Charles, you're the 8th multiple winner of this. You stand alongside one, Heather Oliver,
00:06Rita Omugamono, Chris Green, with the last to do it back-to-back in 2002-2003, Rosanna
00:12Wolgis, Carol Singh, and Tiana Newman, as well, as repeat winners. You're the 8th time
00:19a Canberra flat player has won the medal. You're a two-time membership player, a four-time
00:22best in ferris. It took you so long to get here. I mean, I feel like most years, second,
00:29third, you're always around the mark. Last year, you cracked it. This year, you go back-to-back.
00:34What does it mean to you? I'm a bit lost for words, to be honest. I did not think I'd be
00:39standing up here. But yeah, it's a massive honour to win this award, and especially going
00:44back-to-back. When you think of the players that have actually won this, like Maddie,
00:48she's been in the top five about six times, and won it three times. That's ridiculous.
00:54And Asha, who I play with as well, she's won it. So yeah, it's pretty special, but yeah,
00:59I'm lost for words. A couple of rounds to go. You had 20, next best was 14. Did you
01:04get a quiet word from someone at your time of the go? Chelsea, you can't lose this.
01:08Yeah, I just sweat a lot. I was getting a bit nervous.
01:13Did you manage to crack a smile? I was keeping an eye on you, and it looked pretty tense
01:18over there, but what was the reaction when you thought, oh, I've done the sums here,
01:22and this is mine? Yeah, well, Jay did say you're home, but yeah, I was just a bit shocked,
01:28to be honest. Yeah, I did not think I'd be standing up here again. But yeah, like I said,
01:33it's a massive honour, and yeah, it's a really special award to win. As the captain, and you're
01:38a great leader on the court, you lead by example, you lead through action. How do you also get the
01:43best out of yourself? How do you find that balance between getting the most out of your teammates,
01:47and the best in your own game? I feel like having COVID has definitely changed the way I go about
01:54netball. You know, when you have something taken away from you, you don't actually realise how
01:58much it means to you. Yeah, for me to rock up every week and play alongside my best friends
02:03is pretty special, and I guess what we have at Kangaroo Fight is extremely unique, and
02:09yeah, I just love playing with these girls, and I think the special thing about our team is that
02:12we really bring the best out of each other, and there's a lot of love there, and yeah,
02:17we've, you know, worked really hard to, you know, get into a grand final for next weekend as well,
02:21which is really special. So yeah, I don't know, I just love it. I have so much fun, and yeah,
02:26I think, you know, not having that when we had COVID and stuff just made me realise how much
02:31I actually really enjoy playing, and yeah, that's really special. I think the friendships and stuff
02:36as well, yeah, it's really good. You had a little bit more of a close time this year as well,
02:40of course, with the Bendigo Strikers and the VML coming into that competition.
02:44Did that make it easier, or was it being able to play for the team,
02:47based in your part of the world, in that competition, for your netball?
02:51Yeah, yeah, definitely. The travel was always the hardest thing. I know there's a lot of girls in
02:55the room that play VML, and we've done so much travel over the years, and I was travelling to
02:59Geelong twice a week last year by myself, which is, yeah, which is a lot of effort and commitment
03:05that I had to make to do that. So yeah, for us to have netball here in Bendigo, and you know,
03:09I could just train and then go home. You don't have to travel two hours to get on your way,
03:13you have a bit more time to recover, and yeah, I guess what we had at Strikers was extremely special,
03:18and yeah, it's been really good.
03:20Having been able to keep your level at Kangaroo Flat, you're there every year,
03:24you have been a powerhouse in recent seasons, what's been the secret to the success of
03:29maintaining such a period of excellence within the netball side of your club?
03:34Yeah, I think we've been really lucky. We don't have a lot of players that leave,
03:38so you know, we're not having to rebuild or anything, and we've kept the same sort of core
03:41group around for a long time. I guess if you look at the clubs like Sandhurst and Kingsman,
03:46they're, you know, very similar as well, so I guess once you just want to keep playing longer
03:50together, yeah, the more you gel, and yeah, I think, you know, we have a lot of our good friends
03:55like Abby and Ash come across from Eagle Hawk, which definitely strengthened our team up, and
04:00yeah, we're just really, really good friends off the court too, so I think that's also a
04:04key to success, and Jay has done such an amazing job at Kangaroo Flat, like if he wasn't there,
04:09I don't know what the club would look like, so yeah, Jay has changed the culture in such a positive
04:14way, and yeah, it's a really, really special club to be a part of. Very shrewd recruiters as well,
04:20you've always got an eye on the fire, which is something we like about Kangaroo Flat,
04:24there's always something happening on that front, yeah. Saturday, you went through,
04:27you're in the grand final, did you come through all healthy and president correct for Saturday?
04:33I'm actually very, very sore today, yeah, no, it's really, really special, I can't actually
04:40believe that we won yesterday, and it's been a long time coming, you know, we haven't beaten
04:44Sanders in a final in eight years, so there's a lot of emotion after that game, and yeah,
04:49we're really excited to be playing another grand final this coming weekend. How do you get it done?
04:53If you get it done, you need to topple Gisborne, what do you think needs to happen
04:59out there on Saturday? Yeah, I think we need to sort of go into it with the same sort of mindset
05:03that we had yesterday, we, you know, sort of have, I guess, especially when we played Sanders,
05:08it was always kind of like, ooh, you know, I guess we can do it, but we wanted to have,
05:12you know, the belief that we actually can do it, and our best netball is good enough,
05:16and I think if we play exactly like we did yesterday, and we just gave it our all,
05:20there's no reason why we can't hold that cup next weekend, very much.
05:23Yeah, first of all, I'd just like to thank the Kangaroo Flat Football Netball Club for,
05:30yeah, another amazing season, I had a lot of playing for the Roos, and I'd love to thank
05:35Jadon, my coach, he's absolutely amazing, he does so much for our team, so much for our club,
05:42yeah, to everyone that made tonight happen, thank you so much, to my girls, I'm so proud that we're
05:47playing in the grand final this coming weekend, it's really special, and I couldn't have done
05:52this without you guys, so thank you, to my mum and dad, mum, she's had good luck getting a vote
05:57tonight, so I'm going to send her a photo of the medal, yeah, let her know, let her know, okay,
06:03but yeah, thank you so much.