Emma McVilly
11/3/1991-13/3/2008

BRENDAN McVilly interrupted his daughter Emma's farm chores on Thursday afternoon to wish the talented teenager luck for the netball match she never got to play.

Just hours later the elite Geelong Flyers netballer died after collapsing in the warm-up for the Western Region State League open grand final in Warrnambool.

Emma's death has devastated her tight-knit farming community and sent shockwaves through Victoria's netball elite.

She and her friends had been excited about taking part in their debutante ball the following night, but the Timboon P-12 School celebration was cancelled as Emma's stunned classmates grappled with the loss.

Her Geelong Flyers teammates gathered with coaching staff and grief counsellors last night to do the same.

Emma's distraught family has to wait for autopsy results to find out why the happy, carefree teen died.

Speaking from his Cooriemungle dairy farm, Emma's father said there was no indication anything was wrong with Emma as he and wife Yolanda and their 12-year-old daughter, Caitlyn, travelled to Warrnambool for the game with her.

Mr McVilly said he watched his daughter shoot a couple of goals during the warm-up and turned away for a second and next thing she was on the ground.

Emma collapsed at 8.28pm. A doctor who was going to umpire the match and four nurses in the crowd tried to revive her until paramedics arrived.

``They worked on her until 10.25pm and then they said there is nothing else they could do for her,'' Mr McVilly said.

He said that while his eldest daughter may have been a sports star, she hated the limelight it attracted.

``I said to her last night when she was hosing the dairy, I said good luck because she didn't like us saying good luck in front of other people. I said there will be a lot of people watching you tonight and then I said you never know, it might help you get that Subaru next year if you play well. She was getting a car for her birthday next year and her dream car was a Subaru.''

Unfortunately, Emma's family did not even get to give the year 11 student her 17th birthday present.

It was her birthday on Tuesday and the family celebrated with a pizza dinner, but her gift was on the way.

``She was going to get a laptop next week,'' Mr McVilly said. ``She won't get that''.

He said she had also been ``really looking forward'' to making her debut and was going to be the first of the young women to be presented.

Emma shone at whatever she turned her attention to.

She won the all-rounder award at her school in year 9 and year 10 this year she had embarked on a school-based traineeship at Timboon's sports centre in conjunction with her studies.

The teenager dreamt of becoming a personal trainer.

Mr McVilly said his daughter had excelled at all types of sport since primary school but it was netball and basketball that she loved most.

To name just a few of her achievements, in recent years she had won best and fairest netball awards for Simpson Football Netball Club in under 13s, under 15s and senior ranks, a league under 15 best and fairest for the Colac and District Football Netball League as well as finishing runner-up in a league under 13 and a senior best and fairest count.

Last year she won the League's Most Valuable Player award and shot the most goals. She had also been named goal attack in the league's team of the year in 2006 and 2007.

Geelong Flyers coaching director Susan Meaney had said the club was thrilled when they coaxed the youngster to join their pre-season in November.

``She was just an extremely talented player and you just don't know what her potential could have been. It's just really devastating.'' Ms Meaney said. (less info)