‘She came with a broken nose’: Import’s whirlwind start in Super Netball

Source : ABC NEWS

As we edge towards the halfway point of the season there’s one thing all Super Netball teams are struggling with: consistency.

Even the undefeated NSW Swifts hadn’t put in a full 60-minute performance until Sunday, when they managed to win their first opening quarter in a month against cross-town rivals the Giants.

That laid the platform for them to clinch all four periods, 82-69, in what was a surprising high-scoring affair between top and bottom of the ladder.

Sunshine Coast Lightning moved into second place with a 62-50 victory over the Melbourne Vixens. Simone McKinnis then shocked us all by announcing she’d step down as Vixens head coach at the end of this season.

The game of the round was played between the Adelaide Thunderbirds and West Coast Fever, where each team’s Jamaican target continued their race to 9,000 goals.

Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard added 53 to her tally in the Fever’s triumph, 67-61, and is now 12 goals away from the milestone.

The Melbourne Mavericks are establishing a decent record in Hobart after beating the Queensland Firebirds, 71-64, in their second ever appearance on the Apple Isle.

If you missed it, don’t worry — we’ll get you up to speed with our Super Netball Round-Up.

McKinnis calls time

In round five, McKinnis coached her 200th game in the national netball league.

In round six, she quietly announced her decision to leave the role she’s held for 13 seasons.

Despite her contract being up at the end of the year and the team currently seventh with just two wins, by all reports this was Simone’s decision that she came to on her own terms.

The players were told in the days leading up to the game and shed tears as the news was made public. Captain Kate Moloney said it suddenly felt real and that the announcement should be enough motivation for the team to hold themselves accountable and turn their season around.

As a coach, McKinnis delivered two premierships (2014 and 2020) and took the Vixens to four grand finals, including last year. The Vixens have a reputation for being a very clinical team with high standards and McKinnis has demanded excellence while caring deeply for her players.

Netball Victoria will begin the recruiting process in the coming weeks. The interesting part is that McKinnis hasn’t used the word retirement and says her love for coaching space is still strong.

“It has been 13 years and it’s just the time for me to move on,” McKinnis said.

“To be honest, I’m not one for announcements, I would have happily kept it in-house, but Netball Victoria wanted to get on with recruitment.

“I don’t know [where I’ll end up next], it’s not even something I’ve thought about … my job now is to find a way to make the rest of the season the best it can be, then I’ll walk away and go on holiday and won’t be driving up the freeway from Geelong to Melbourne every day.

“We seem a bit flat and lifeless, maybe we just need to go to the pub.”

It was nice to see McKinnis’s humorous side, indicating a weight had come off her shoulders.

So, who will replace her? A Super Netball head coach needs to at least have their elite accreditation and to be working towards a high-performance accreditation.

Several assistant coaches’ names have been raised. Dylan Nexhip (Swifts) recently achieved elite, while Cathy Fellows (Thunderbirds) and Nicole Richardson (Mavericks) are believed to both have their high performance.

It’s hard to know who else could be in the running as the sport can be tight-lipped about these accreditations, but one thing we know about Netball Victoria is they like to recruit their own.

Bueta on the comeback?

Could one of the best goal attacks the game has seen be forging a comeback?

In 2024, Gretel Bueta said she was focusing on her family. Now it seems she’s had a change in mindset as tries to regain her fitness after giving birth to her third child, daughter Lacy.

Netball fans were very excited when the former Diamonds star posted a video to her Instagram account practising her shooting alongside Australian head coach Stacey Marinkovich.

It was quickly confirmed that this appearance was a clinic Bueta and Marinkovich were running for competition winners. False alarm, we thought.

Until Marinkovich appeared on Fox Netball and added fuel to the fire.

“Gretel is four months post baby and she’s using netball as a tool to get fit, she’s not retired so is just seeing where her body is at and you never know what could happen,” Marinkovich said.

“It is step by step, she’s doing a good job working in the background, we’ll see where it takes us.”

Bueta is not currently linked to any Super Netball or Queensland state team, but Firebirds goal attack Tippah Dwan ruled herself out of selection last week as she looks to rehab a knee injury.

Bueta won two premierships with the team (2015 and 2016) and made headlines in 2021 when she returned to the top level four months after having her first child, son Bobby. She last played in 2022 before having her second child, Toby.

In 2023 she worked as an assistant coach before taking a break from the game altogether. Last year, Bueta said she was keeping her distance because she’d been told she was a distraction.

Diamonds contracts will be announced towards the end of the season, which will work in Bueta’s favour.

“We don’t have to do it as early as what we have done before because there’s no marquee event, so we’ll push it back to allow players to showcase what they can do,” Marinkovich said.

If Bueta is fit and ready the national team would definitely want her in the environment as they build towards the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and a 2027 home World Cup. Particularly with the form of Sophie Dwyer and Sophie Garbin a bit shaky.

Import broke nose before joining Thunderbirds

Adelaide Thunderbirds general manager of high performance Jace Bode has spilled the tea on the club’s signing of South African import Sanmarie Visser.

On Netball Unlocked, Bode spoke about the sleepless nights he had trying to find a replacement for pregnant goal keeper Shamera Sterling-Humphrey.

Super Netball teams were finalised in August and the two-time defending premiers did not expect they’d be trying to claim a three-peat without their marquee player.

Bode said his instinct was to protect Sterling-Humphrey, even if it meant telling a white lie to conceal the true reason Visser was spotted at the pre-season Team Girls Cup.

“When Shamera told us in early February … given everything that had played out with Fowler-Nembhard’s [miscarriage], it was a sensitive topic,” Bode said.

“It didn’t give us a lot of options for replacements and we’re not blessed with a lot of height in our South Australia pathways, so we looked internationally.

“Romelda Aiken-George had a knee cleanout, there was an opportunity to bring Sanmarie in as her replacement and we didn’t disclose that Shamera was pregnant, but we said it was likely there would be an opportunity.

“We tried to be as up front as we could be and asked, ‘Can you take that leap of faith? Knowing there might not be anything on the end of it?’

“She took that risk.”

Bode also confirmed rumours that Visser had a face injury before joining the Thunderbirds. ABC Sport were originally told Visser had fractured a bone around her eye socket during her international debut at the Nations Cup. Bode said it was a broken nose.

Visser was spotted wearing a face guard in April at training, the club has now revealed she had surgery prior to her arrival in South Australia.

“Sanmarie came with a broken nose and we didn’t see her in a competitive environment while Romelda was injured … It did enable us to fast-track her development though.”

Playing across goal keeper, goal defence and wing defence, the 21-year-old has a bright future and has offered plenty of versatility in her three Super Netball appearances.