first-hand experience

By Raelee Tuckerman - Photography by AJ Taylor

Brothers Macaulay and Riley Senior were sitting home watching TV in January 2019 when they saw a world championship game of handball between Croatia and Spain listed on the programming. Little did they know that less than four years later, they would step onto an international handball court wearing green and gold, proudly making their debut for Australia.

“I’d heard of handball but didn’t really know what it was,” says Macaulay. “So, we watched that game on TV and thought it was pretty cool and looked like a lot of fun. A year later, I found out there were teams in Melbourne and tried to join one but the website contact sheet wasn’t working so I didn’t follow it up.”

There was an unsuccessful attempt to get handball added to the list of official clubs at Marist College, where the boys attended school, before they took things into their own hands.

“In the July school holidays of 2021, we decided to ask our friends if they wanted to play handball, organise our own training sessions and start our own club – and it worked,” says Macaulay. “We contacted mates from our school and others and said, ‘hey, do you want to play a sport you’ve probably never heard of?’ and they said, ‘sure’. There were six of us at our first training session on August 1 that year and we now have nine regulars in total.”

Handball is a fast-paced, seven-a-side sport that combines the skills and rules of soccer, basketball, netball and water polo. The aim is to throw a ball into nets at either end of the court, with three footsteps and three seconds allowed before the ball must be bounced. Goals are scored from outside a six-metre zone that only the goalie is allowed inside.

The local club’s men’s team is known as the Maiden Gully Mavericks after a poll of players to decide upon a nickname was almost unanimous. “It was when the movie Top Gun Maverick was coming out and we all thought, yeah we’ve got to go with that one,” laughs Riley.

The Mavericks played their first matches last May, travelling to Parkville for some ‘friendlies’ against metro club St Kilda and UniSA from Adelaide. To boost their numbers, some of the state’s most experienced handball exponents filled in for them and provided tips throughout the games.

“We had a New Zealand national team player, an ex-Hungarian national goalkeeper, an ex-Australian representative and a really good French player – very elite guys,” says Macaulay. “It was really good,” adds Riley, “because we were all still pretty green to the sport so if we stuffed up, they would run over and tell us what we should do next time.”

St Kilda has since visited Bendigo for coaching clinics and scratch matches, with more in the pipeworks. The Mavericks are mostly aged 18-20, so are not yet ready to compete in the Handball Victoria men’s league but hope to help Victoria field a junior side in the national championships. They are also looking for more players and would love to expand to include a women’s team if they can muster the numbers.

The 18-year-old twins from Yarraberb, near Bridgewater, say now is the perfect time to take up handball – as host of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, Australia is an automatic qualifier. The only other time we contested Olympic handball was in Sydney in 2000.

“All the guys in the current Australian team are saying now is the time,” says Riley. “They want us to get ready now so we can have 10 years of solid preparation ahead of 2032, when we’ll be in our prime.”

If recent achievements are any indication, the boys are on track. Despite only playing their first competitive game in May, they were selected to represent Australia at the International Handball Federation Oceania Trophy in December – Macaulay in the under-20 team and Riley in the under-18s.

“It was quite ridiculous how quickly it all happened,” explains Macaulay. “We went to Melbourne in late November to watch the national championships and I was told by the Handball Victoria president that national youth coach Eoin Murray would be there. He said a lot of the guys in the youth national team were playing at the tournament and asked if we’d like to train with them. It wasn’t really meant to be a try out, but if we were any good there was a chance we could get in the under-18 team.”

Just as the twins headed off to Apollo Bay to celebrate schoolies, they received an email congratulating them on their national selection. Two days after their return, they flew to Sydney for a training camp and a week later were off to the Cook Islands for the Oceania tournament.

“It was pretty overwhelming,” says Riley. “They all knew each other, and here were two Victorian guys just walking in, dumping our bags, putting on training bibs and getting into it straight away.”

The boys also played some lead-up practice matches in Sydney, drawing with University of Technology Sydney women and getting well beaten but not disgraced against Australia’s strongest, most successful handball club, Sydney Uni men.

“It was very exciting and we gelled well with the team and we were ready to go,” says Macaulay. “Then the coach came and took me away from the group and I thought I was in trouble, but it wasn’t that at all. I’m left-handed and play the right wing position, where righthanders have a lot of trouble shooting goals from. Our under-18s team had three left-handers and the under-20 team had none, so Eoin pulled me aside two days before we left for the Cook Islands and asked if I’d play in the under-20s. It was ludicrous. We went in as development players, first time in the squad, and now I’m on the under-20s team whose aim was to win the whole tournament.” And win they did!

In 2023, the twins hope to play some matches with St Kilda and develop the Maiden Gully Mavericks to debut at the annual club championships. They’re also aiming to make Victoria’s open-age squad.

Macaulay says they have received amazing support from St Kilda and the wider handball community. “When we first started, I contacted one of the guys at St Kilda to ask where to get balls from. You can’t just walk into Rebel Sport and buy handballs! He gave us seven old balls and they gave us better ones when they came here. The generosity has been incredible – they are volunteers just trying to help us and help build the profile of the sport.”

The Maiden Gully Handball Club trains on Sundays at the Bendigo Badminton and Table Tennis Complex in Eaglehawk, from noon-2pm. Newcomers are welcome – contact Macaulay Senior on 0421 151 961 or message the club via Facebook.