DESCRIBING Lesley MacDonald as a veteran seems inappropriate given that she is only 28 years old. Yet the label is her own and merely reflects the callow nature of her colleagues in the national netball team. The sport, it should be added, is coming of age in Scotland.

The 14th-place finish in last year's world championships and subsequent rise in the world rankings hinted at progress but a lack of consistently competitive action had erected a ceiling on the team's ambitions. Indeed, that stultifying state of affairs has also prevented any Scottish team entering the Commonwealth Games.

However, that ceiling has just been smashed. Next month, the Glasgow Wildcats will play their first match in the Co-operative Netball Superleague, having become the ninth franchise to join the division earlier this summer. With one game shown in full every week on Sky Sports, as well as highlights of the others, the profile of Scottish netball will reach new levels over the coming months.

"It was always something we hoped would happen," admits MacDonald, who is set to fill the position of goal shooter in a squad comprising the best players in the country. "The improvement in both the English and Welsh national teams since the league started has been incredible. We really needed to get involved in the Superleague to make sure our development could continue along a similar path and we could fulfil our aim of competing in Glasgow in 2014."

Backed by £200,000 of Glasgow City Council funding, the Wildcats are determined to make the most of their opportunity. A management structure has been put in place - including a full-time coach, Denise Holland, who has been brought in from league rivals Brunel Hurricanes - and the players are training six days a week in preparation for the opening game. With the current pool of 22 to be whittled down to 15 ahead of the match with Leeds, the level of effort on display is perhaps unsurprising.

Still, MacDonald - who confesses that the investment has to be repaid with results - insists that self-development is the key motivating factor.

"Our main aim is to increase the profile of netball throughout Scotland, because this franchise is not just for Glasgow, and to increase our own standards," she says. "We competed in the world championships in New Zealand last November and finished 14th with nothing like the resources we have now, so this should enable us to kick on."

As a sports development officer for Culture and Sport Glasgow, MacDonald has added reason to hope that the new franchise is successful. Netball is one of two sports in her remit - along with judo - but the impending Glasgow games has intensified competition for talented youngsters, as a variety of disciplines all attempt to bolster their resources ahead of the showpiece event.

Having a unique selling point will be crucial and, in the Wildcats, she believes she has the very vehicle.

"It is difficult because we're a big department here all fighting for the same participants, trying to encourage people to our sports," admits MacDonald, who first started playing the game at school in Kirkcaldy. "But netball is one of the top female sports in the country, so there is a good market there especially in primary schools, where it is very popular. If we can establish a development programme that runs before or after superleague matches where kids can come along and be involved, watching the game and the players, then we can retain them in the sport."

With Netball Scotland coaches going into schools delivering programmes, and junior clubs forming a pathway to district and, ultimately, national level, routes are there for youngsters to reach the top of the sport. MacDonald herself did just that, spending the last two seasons commuting from Glasgow to play for Team Northumbria in the elite division, while somehow fitting in national squad sessions, too. The journey to the Kelvin Hall or Bellahouston for Wildcats matches this season will be much more palatable but MacDonald's committed example is one her young colleagues would do well to follow. Although five of the current group have at least trained with Northumbria in Newcastle, the team will rely heavily on her experience.

"There are quite a few U17s who have come through this year and the U21 players are also involved as well as a few of us older ones who are pushing on a bit," says MacDonald, refuting suggestions that she is far from aged herself. "All the young ones in the squad make you feel old but they can only get better and better with this experience."