Seeking a change: Hampden netball side nabs rising star from nearby league

Eighteen-year-old Leah Perkins has signed with Camperdown from Colac and District league side Colac Imperials after winning the league's best under 19 player in 2023.

"I'm extremely excited," Perkins, a talented attacker, told The Standard.

"It's going to be something very different. I've been at Imps my whole life since I was eligible to play."

Perkins, whose aunty Rachel Rodgers was a former captain of the Magpies' open grade outfit, said she was due for a change of environment.

"I was looking for something different to better my game and just gain more experience and I felt like I needed to do that in a different league," she said.

The Colac-based teenager, who is a trainee at Minerva Insurance Strategies, said she was "loving the vibe and culture of the club" from her limited interactions so far.

She joins Matilda Pollard (Sebastopol) and Lily Eldridge (Colac) as high-profile signings at the youthful Magpies, who are seeking improvement from an eighth-place finish last year.

Perkins is no stranger to a rebuilding phase and said she wasn't setting any expectations for the season.

"In A grade, the year before last, we finished bottom, we won the first game of the season and had 17 straight losses, so I'm used to that and then the year after we recruited, rebuilt and developed and we came fifth," she said.

"So I believe in developing and you've got to start somewhere."