By Ben Martin, Colac Herald
A hunt through Otway Districts’ netball records this week revealed Candi Panther had become the seventh member of Colac district netball’s 300 club. The decorated netballer spoke to the Colac Herald’s Ben Martin about her incredible journey to the major milestone.
ELITE COMPANY
Otway Districts’ Candi Panther says it’s a bit surreal to join Colac district netball’s 300 club… even if she missed the big day.
A hunt through the Demons’ netball records this week revealed Panther reached the incredible milestone during the club’s clash with Simpson on the weekend.
It’s been over two decades since a teenage Candi Robbins made her senior debut with Otway Districts.
Panther has since notched up three A Grade premierships, six grand final appearances, one league medal win and one runner-up finish, eight club best-and-fairests and countless goals to join CDFNL’s elite 300-club.
Panther said it was an honour to join the likes of her former teammate Jenny Fish, Narelle Frith, Sharon Hickey, Jenny Hillman, Rachel Rodger and Elissa Rodger.
“It’s pretty special,” she said.
“All of those girls are absolutely brilliant netballers.
“To have been around as long as they have, it’s come as a bit of a surprise.
“We thought I could have been roughly thereabouts but I didn’t think I was this close.”
Panther, who will turn 40 in December, said playing 300 A Grade games had never been a goal for her.
“But it is nice to still get picked in A Grade or for teams to look for me for an A Grade team,” she said.
“I’ll always play where I’m needed.”
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Panther’s netball began in the juniors at the Western Eagles under Karen Slater.
Panther’s mum Jenny Robbins hadn’t been involved with a netball club so she joined the Eagles because “I played basketball with Karen’s daughter Annie”.
She split her juniors between the Eagles and Otway Districts as she had family there, winning a junior premiership at both clubs.
Panther made her senior debut at Otway Districts while still playing in the Heytesbury league’s junior ranks.
“I don’t remember who was coach then, but I remember playing with Brenda Perkins because now I play with her daughter Brooke (Hawkins),” Panther said.
“I ended up going back to the Eagles when Karen Slater took over as A Grade coach, and got to learn off some great players like Jenny Fish and Kess Duynhoven,” she said.
“It was nice to be involved in their team, you can take a lot from players like that.”
It was at the Eagles that Panther made her CDFNL A Grade debut in 2002, winning the Eagles’ best-and-fairest award in her first full season of senior netball.
After two years at the Eagles, Panther returned to Otway Districts for two seasons – making her coaching debut with a Demons junior team – before joining friends at Belmont in the Geelong district league for two seasons.
But it was her return to the Colac district league in 2008 – this time with Colac Imperials – that her trophy cabinet began to explode.
THE CATS’ GOLDEN ERA
Panther played in five grand finals during a dominant era at Western Oval.
Making the move to join mates Kellie Edwards and Emily Davis at the Imps, Panther signed on as A Grade assistant coach to Eva Callahan.
The Cats played in a losing grand final against Irrewarra-Beeac in 2011 before recruiting former junior Bec Scott, now Bec O’Neill, back to the club.
The Imps would go on to win the next three flags, with Panther stepping up to the head coaching role for the latter two and earning the best-on-court medal in both.
The premiership run ended with a grand final loss to South Colac in 2015.
It was during her time at Imps that Robbins won her first league best-and-fairest in 2009, and she finished runner-up alongside Irrewarra-Beeac’s Lauren Theodore to her teammate Scott in 2015.
RISE OF THE DEMONS
After eight years with the Cats, Panther made her long-awaited return to Otway Districts in 2016 to play under long-time friend Emma Craddock, while her future husband Ross Panther was also at the club.
Panther coached the Demons from 2017 until 2021, being joined by her brother Billy Mahoney in the final season.
Her return played a large part in the rise of the Demons’ netball program, which hit a high in 2019 when Otway played in its first top-grade grand final since 1996.
The grand final still stands out as one of the highlights of Panther’s career despite losing the game to Alvie.
“Premierships are always great because you get to share them with your teammates,” she said.
“The three at Imps were pretty special, we had a couple of different girls each year but the majority of us stuck together for a while.
“But making the grand final with the Otway girls, I know we lost, but we put so much into just making finals, and then to win a couple of finals, it was special to get to the grand final with that group of girls.”
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
Panther’s managed to reach the incredible 300-game milestone while having four children along the way.
The eldest Levi, 13, is now playing football with the Colac Tigers while the young trio of Lewie, 6, Sid, 3, and Ollie, who turns 1 next week, have all come during her return to Otway.
Panther said Ollie’s was the only pregnancy to sideline her for an entire season, though she conceded that injuries, not pregnancies, were now making it harder to get through a full season.
The 39-year-old suffered her second knee injury of the season in the Demons’ loss to Simpson on the weekend.
But despite reaching the major milestone, Panther said she had no plans to finish up any time soon.
“I’m still enjoying my netball a lot,” she said.
“So while I’m able to, I’ll keep playing.
“It’s the friendships you make within the club, and the league as well, that keep you coming back.
“As long as the club needs me I’ll keep coming back.”
Panther said she would never have reached 300 games without the support of family and friends around the league.
“Mum used to run me around when I was a junior,” she said.
“And now it’s the babysitters, I’ve had an amazing group around each club who help babysit to allow me to train and play on a Saturday.
“And I should probably thank Ross as well.”
WHAT A CAREER
Candi Panther’s 300 A Grade/senior CDFNL games in a nutshell
Premierships: 3 (Colac Imps 2012-14)
Grand finals: 6 (Colac Imps 2011-15, Otway Dist 2019)
League B&Fs: 1 (2009)
League B&F r-up: 1 (2015)
Club B&Fs: 8 (W. Eagles 1, Otway Dist 4, Colac Imps 3)
Club B&F r-up: 7 (W. Eagles 1, Otway Dist 2, Colac Imps 4)
Team of the Year selections: 3 (Colac Imps 2009, 2012, Otway Dist 2019)
