Western Bulldogs' Mary Sandral makes a netball comeback with Billabong Crows

Sandral, who captains Western Bulldogs in the VFLW, took the court with sister Jen in a senior game for the very first time last weekend.

The siblings, who are six years apart, never joined forces in juniors and Mary's football career then took her down a different path.

But in a memorable sporting reunion, the pair helped Crows' B-grade hold ladder leaders Jindera to a 39-39 draw at Oaklands.

"Unfortunately we didn't make finals for the VFL so I thought I'd make a netball comeback and go out to help the Crows," Sandral said.

"I hadn't played for four years so it took me a little while to settle in and make the adjustment from footy.

"I don't think you forget how to play but the ins and outs of netball are a little bit different.

"It didn't take too long and I felt like I was back into like normal.

"It was really cool playing with Jen.

"It's her first year of senior netball, so awesome to be able to play with her.

"Playing our first game together was really special."

To say sport was central to the Sandral household growing up would be an understatement.

"Coming from a small place like Oaklands, sport is the absolute hub of the community.

"I played Auskick as a kid with my brothers and then transitioned into playing netball.

"It's a big family, there's eight of us and I'm the eldest.

"So you rock up on Saturday and we're all playing at the club.

"I've got two brothers that are playing senior football, a brother who's doing the sports training because he's injured at the moment, our youngest brother has cerebral palsy so he does the scoreboard.

"Another brother plays in the U17s and my youngest sister plays junior netball as well.

"It's definitely a family affair!"

Sandral played netball until she finished school and then moved to Melbourne for university, which is when she switched to footy.

"I played Auskick with my five brothers so footy was always a constant for me out in the back yard," Sandral said.

"But with limited opportunities at that point for women's footy, I naturally transitioned into netball and loved that as well.

"When I went away to uni, I thought I'd have a go at footy and it's turned out really well.

"Playing for Bulldogs in the VFL has been great.

"There's definitely been highs and lows, we made the grand final in 2019 and lost that but it was a great season.

"We've been through a couple of tough season; last year we didn't win any games and we've had a bit of a rebuilding season this year.

"That's been really positive and we came away with three wins.

"I really enjoyed the challenge of stepping up into being the captain and trying to lead a new and exciting group.

"It's such an honour to be able to captain the side.

"The adversity of having such a tough season the year before, we had quite a lot of change within the group between last year and this year so taking a relatively new group this year, quite a young group as well, that was massive in terms of building connection between people.

"I think we did that really well in the end and built a strong culture that hopefully will lead to some success moving forward."

There are parallels between Sandral's journey and that of Majella Day, who had to stop playing Hume League football at Lockhart when she was too old for the under-14s.

Day is now blazing a trail with the Murray Bushrangers, having already played four matches in the U19 side as a 15-year-old and Sandral encouraged all football-mad girls in the region to keep chasing their dream.

"My advice is to keep at it and jump at the opportunity," Sandral said.

"Even in the short time since I was a junior, the opportunities have improved a lot.

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"From those smaller communities, I'd definitely encourage people to try to play under-14s with the boys while they can.

"Majella's been awesome in terms of what she's been able to do, going to the Bushies.

"It's so exciting to see the growth of women's footy, especially in the regions, where it's probably been a little bit behind Melbourne in the past."

Sandral will play out the rest of the netball season with the Crows, who are sixth on the B-grade ladder and looking to lock down a place in the finals series.

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