Sport
6 January, 2026
SUMMER READING: Susie’s sporting spirit
WHEN Susie Lockhart was at primary school, she was sent to the principal’s office after a shocking act in the playground.
Young Susie had dared to grab a footy during recess and have a kick.
Girls, it was made clear to her by the principal, did not play football.
Perhaps that’s why, almost a half a century on, Lockhart is not much of a fan of the AFLW competition and women’s football in general.
Her particular beef is the money being poured into women’s football at the expense of more established sports such as netball.
That makes AFLW about the only sport she doesn’t enjoy.
At 55, Susie Lockhart – netball player and coach, champion golfer, life-long tennis player and basketballer – is still at the heart of Wedderburn women’s sport.
This year she will take up duties as coach of the all-conquering Redbacks A Grade netball team, with second cousin Aliza as her assistant, as well as swapping roles and assisting Aliza in coaching the B Grade side.
There’s no guarantee she won’t put on a bib at some point for one of the lower-grade teams, given she played last year and has ‘retired’ more times than Nellie Melba.
“I’m pretty sure I have retired this time,” she told the Loddon Herald, with a strong note of uncertainty in her voice.
It seems unlikely for someone who has been synonymous with sport in Wedderburn for almost her whole life.
“Growing up we didn’t live far from a netball court, so I was always down there practising goals,” Lockhart said.
Her father Ian Hall was a prominent local footballer who also coached netball, and her mother Ruth is still winning bowls championships at 83.
It was almost pre-destined that Susie would love sport and be exceptional at it.
“There are more life lessons to be learned from sport than anything else,” she said.
“You have got to be a team player, to be humble in victory and a good sport after a loss. To play in a good spirit.”
After the false start on the primary school footy field, Lockhart focused on netball and tennis.
She played A Grade netball for Wedderburn at 15 and turned out regularly until she was 39, as well as being a North Central inter-league representative.
At 38, she tore her ACL in a league semi-final. The team lost the grand final in her absence.
“That was a bit of a debacle,” Lockhart said.
“The ACL was in August, and I was back playing the next year by July. I had a brilliant recovery, although I said at the time that if I had another ACL, I wouldn’t have an operation because it hurt so much.
“I didn’t have any physio. I was just keeping fit and running.”
Tennis was another sport Lockhart took up as a youngster, and she continues playing at pennant level with husband Tim in the Inglewood and District competition.
She also played A Grade pennant in the strong Bendigo association but stopped last year because of a transition to hard courts.
“You have really long rallies, and the ball keeps bouncing too high. I love the low bounce of a grass court.”
In Bendigo, she played for the ‘Lockhart’ team, because sides were named after the number one ranked player of the four team members.
The Lockhart team won “a few grand finals at different times because I had the best number twos, threes and fours.
“I was the dud. That is a fact. I was the worst number one in the comp,” she said.
That, of course, must be taken with a grain of salt, given her rich crop of titles on the court.
Lockhart also played top grade basketball in summer for many years, from junior competition in Wedderburn through to adult basketball at St Arnaud.
“I just used to shoot goals, although I was pretty short,” she said.
However, basketball is off the agenda these days: “It’s embarrassing – I can’t run anymore.”
Golf, on the other hand, is one sport Lockhart came to relatively late.
She took up the game about 25 years ago after having had her four children: Meg, Nikki, Joe and Sam.
Lockhart is now captain of ladies’ golf at Wedderburn, a pennant player and twice a club champion, as well as a winner of both the scratch and handicap events in the Kara Kara Golf Association regional team tournament.
Her best off-the-stick score is 78 at Boort in a Kara Kara event, which she won. At Wedderburn, her best is 79.
Lockhart plays off a handicap of 15 at Wedderburn and has recently hit a pair of 86s for a nett 71 score.
A hole-in-one remains elusive: “I will have to keep trying.”
Not so surprisingly, she doesn’t have a lot of time to relax and watch TV.
She helps run the family farm, operates a catering business for events such as weddings and funerals as well as football and netball matches, and is a volunteer or an elected official on more committees than you can possibly imagine.
“I see sport as keeping communities going,” she said, admitting to fears that kids no longer saw sport as a priority.
Sporting longevity and resilience are ingrained in Lockhart – keeping track of premierships, best-and-fairest awards and club championships … not so much.
Asked about her premiership wins, she seems puzzled that anyone would bother to care about keeping tabs.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not sure. I don’t write them down and I don’t even want to, actually.”
It’s not false modesty. There’s no trophy cabinet bursting with medals and cups, although there could be.
There’s just genuine appreciation of what sport has given to someone who has given much more in return.