Cambridge netball star Georgie Edgecombe celebrated two milestones last week, playing her 50th game for Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic on Monday before marking the team’s 25th birthday on Sunday.
When Georgie Edgecombe, second left, was head student at St Peter’s School in 2018 with fellow head students Baxter Kane, Jack Douglas and Keruma Gibson.
“It’s definitely a dream come true to even have played one game, especially for the Magic, because they were my home team and the team I supported growing up,” said the 23-year-old, originally from Hamilton.
“So to play 50… it’s definitely special, and I feel honoured to have been able to put the dress on that many times.”
Edgecombe moved to Cambridge while a senior student at St Peter’s School, which she attended from 2014-2018, and still lives here with her mother, Anne Smith.
Currently playing in midcourt, she filled in for the Magic as a replacement player in 2019 and was contracted full-time in 2021, where she found herself amongst her idols.
“I was a bit starstruck to start with, but, you know, you just come to realise that they’re just people too, and just doing what they love, like I was doing,” she said.
Playing for the Silver Ferns is her “ultimate long-term goal”, but right now she’s focused on helping the Magic have a successful year.
“We’ve just built some really good connections and great team culture over the past three or so years, so it’s kind of starting to come to fruition and the results are coming from that, which is awesome.”
Her advice to aspiring young netballers is to have fun and enjoy the game – “the more fun you have the better you play” – but also to keep working hard, “because you never know who might be watching”.
“There’s a quote: ‘hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard’, so that’s definitely something I’ve had in the back of my head throughout my career so far.”
She encouraged fans to support the Magic at their remaining Hamilton home games.
“It’s nice to have that noise in the crowd and hearing everyone cheering for you – it’s like an extra player for us sometimes, kind of pushing us over the line at the end of game, so it definitely means a lot,” she said.
In her spare time, Edgecombe enjoys dabbling in photography and walking her miniature Labradoodle, Bear.
“We spend a lot of time walking the streets and hanging out, so that also takes up a lot of my time outside of netball,” she said.
“He’s very cute.”
Georgie Edgecombe and her dog Bear enjoy time together at Lake Te Koo Utu.
