THE Cubby connection is well known in Dubbo junior netball circles, but in 2016 Paycee and Lily Cubby are taking it to the nation.
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The 12-year-old cousins starred for NSW at the recent National Indigenous Schoolgirls carnival at the Gold Coast, and have now gained selection in the Australian Budgies Indigenous Netball squad.
"They were selected in a squad of 20 to play on the Gold Coast in January... they ended up coming runners-up against the other NSW side," Paycee's mother, Amy Cubby said.
"Paycee is heading to Melbourne in August and she will play in the National Schoolgirls Netball Championships.
"Lily will play in another national carnival [the Gold Coast Netball Carnival] in July."
Born just two weeks apart, the pair have been playing netball together - Lily in goal attack and Paycee at goal keeper - since the age of seven.
They play locally at both club and representative levels, but the girls said playing together for NSW was a whole new experience.
"We got to verse the different states and get skills, because there was a skills day," Paycee said.
"We had to show them the Cubby Connection.
"It was pretty good. I got pretty angry at her a couple of times but I love her."
Lily said the carnival was "exciting".
"We made a lot of new friends and we found a long lost cousin," she said.
"Two of our other cousins were actually in the Queensland side."
The January carnival was a big learning experience for the two youngsters, who have given up representative basketball honours to focus on their netball.
Australian Budgies secretary Deb Farrell said the Budgies program exists to show young indigenous girls they have what it takes to match it with the nation's best.
"Our aim is to get the girls strong enough and confident enough to play mainstream, because lot of our girls don't think they're good enough," Farrell said.
"This is about building their skills and their confidence.
"A lot of them think they can't make it, but they can - they just need to believe in themselves."
It's already worked a treat with the Cubbys, who both say they want to take their netball all the way to playing for Australia and even overseas.
They are eagerly looking forward to playing for the Budgies later in the year, despite the fact they won't be playing together.
Paycee will actually swap one cousin for another - she will take the court alongside Queensland's Renee Cubby for the 12/13s Budgies - and is excited to head to Melbourne.
"Because I've never been there, and just playing with people that I've never played with before," Paycee said.
"It's definitely harder, because you don't know people's skill levels, but you just work around it."