Warrnambool appoints Raewyn Poumako and Laura Peake as 2023 netball coaches

Laura Peake has joined the Blues and will work alongside Raewyn Poumako as they strive to take the Hampden league club to finals.

It will be a homecoming for Peake, who also has ties to Koroit and Warrnambool and District league club Merrivale, while Poumako will enter her sixth season at the helm.

Poumako said she was excited to work alongside Peake whom she once coached at the Tigers.

"It is great for the club, the players, myself," she told The Standard.

"We're really excited to have Laura coming back to the club and I am really looking forward to working with her."

Poumako said they would complement each other to bring the best out of the team.

"She will be really easy to communicate with and we're both really open to listening to different ideas about types of play that will suit our team, how we can improve individual players," she said.

"Even though we both have a good understanding of the whole court, Laura has a great defensive knowledge and she's got a really good brain for putting things into a practical application on the court."

Warrnambool is grateful its netball program, which has been disjointed due to being based at different venues during the Reid Oval upgrade, will be back at its home base permanently.

Poumako said that stability, coupled with the Blues' emerging players, meant there was a positive vibe at the club.

"We love ensuring our juniors get development so I am really excited to see how some of our juniors go," she said.

"They'll be that year older, (have) that little bit bigger body and a little more strength-wise."

Warrnambool netball president Damien Ryan said the Blues were thrilled with the appointments.

"It's a great addition to our club to get Laura back, a former premiership player," he said.

"She has good knowledge of the game and is a past coach at other clubs.

"It will be good to have her netball intelligence around the place and it will just add to our netball club."

Ryan, who believes Peake and Poumako will "work well together", said the Blues were excited to see what next season would bring across all grades.

"There is a good vibe, we've had really good tryouts with our juniors and we've got a 17 (and under) reserves team which we didn't have last year," he said.

"We still have a couple of coaching slots to fill but it's been a very positive off-season."

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