Vixens 43 Swifts 49

Vixens player Geva Mentor competes for the ball with Swifts player Vanessa Ware in yesterday's match. Photo: Getty Images

SKILLS can be taught, shooting practised, strategies rehearsed. But steel? Menace? Grunt? NSW Swifts defenders Sonia Mkoloma and Mo'onia Gerrard had plenty, yesterday, of what the Melbourne Vixens' attack at times did not.

''I felt [at] the goaling end they were really outmuscled, [with] the physicality of it, and at times they're younger players in terms of their experience, but they've had enough netball now at this level to be able to take that,'' said Vixens' assistant coach Eloise Southby-Halbish after the occasionally torrid loss to the Swifts at Hisense Arena.

Swifts shooter Susan Pratley - who with yet another dominant display has almost certainly worked her way back into a gold and green dress - could not have agreed more.

''Our defence were the heroes today, Mon [Gerrard] and Son [Mkoloma] just work so well together in the circle and made it really rough for the Vixens shooters."

Yet it wasn't just the defensive end the Swifts had sorted. Pratley shot 32 from 37 while Amorette Wild, who proved a strong support, shot 14/17.

Wild has spent years on the Swifts bench. Paige Hadley had spent but minutes before she was thrust into the action yesterday, coming on to replace the Swifts and Australian centre Kimberlee Green, who suffered a foot injury in the third quarter.

"It is also great to have players come off the bench so seamlessly,'' Pratley said. ''We have been rotating players quite well and it is a huge confidence builder for the team."

And so Swifts coach Lisa Beehag's rotation policy bore fruit, with Hadley - who has had two stints on court previously this season - then switched to WA and Vanessa Ware to centre. Ware stepped into Green's aggressive role - and the rest was written on the dejected Vixens' faces after the match.

The Vixens' 6-0 start to the season has now faded to a worrying 6-3, the Swifts' latest victory equalling the Vixens' initial streak. As well as an unsettled shooting circle shared by Kate Beveridge, Tegan Caldwell and Karyn Howarth, the Vixens' main issue is with sustaining their full-court effort. Burst play - such as when they swept back from a five-goal deficit to be level at half-time, and again in the last quarter, when they clawed back to within two goals after trailing by eight - will just not do it.

Bianca Chatfield, the captain, is surprised and concerned. ''We just can't kick on, and get up and maintain our lead,'' she said. ''I think we've just got to keep searching, and find what it is that we're missing - it's not through lack of effort, I think everyone's trying out there … It's that relentless pressure that we need all the time; not just for two minutes and then have two minutes off. It's really disappointing.''

Green, who missed her first game after 101 consecutive matches only this month, also with a foot injury, was being cautious. ''I was a little bit disappointed that I had to come off … I have to try and monitor it [the injury] as best as I can and coming off was the best option for me."

The co-captain though was pleased her side could finish off each quarter strongly. "It was an amazing win, our players are all finishing off each quarter really well, which is something we have been working on," she said.

The win puts the Swifts fourth on the ladder - but all of the top-four teams are on 12 points. Next up for the Swifts are the Queensland Firebirds, whom they have already beaten once this season.

Awesome ... Mystics defender Anna Harrison blocks a goal shot. Photo: Getty Images

''AWESOME'' was the first word NSW Swifts defender Mo'onia Gerrard used to describe the rugby-style ''chairlift'' manoeuvre used by New Zealand team Northern Mystics at the weekend.

The Mystics secured a four-point win over the Melbourne Vixens after defender Anna Harrison was hoisted by her teammate to block a number of shots, much to the delight of the crowd, television audiences and rival players.

"For them to pull it off, it was like 'Yes!','' Gerrard said. ''They've cracked the ice for us. It wouldn't surprise me if somebody else does it."

 

 

 

The ANZ Championship board of directors and players support the tactic, which is deemed to be within the rules.

Netballers have toyed with the novel defensive tactic in training and light-hearted games, but rarely risk attempting it in competitive matches, although this could change after Harrison's success.

''It's being creative, it's out of the box, stretching the rules and now it's been exposed,'' Gerrard said. ''They might have to rewrite the rules but I hope they don't. It's a whole new ball game now."

The championship's general manager, Andrew Crook, said: "The first question is whether it's in the rules, and it certainly is. Obviously it's slightly unorthodox and slightly unusual but it's something that's been used before, so it's an old skill but a difficult skill to master."

Footage of the move has elicited a mostly positive and supportive response from within the game as, well as created a great sense of excitement among fans.

It worked like this: Anna Harrison, a tall defender with a great reach and vertical leap, would intermittently launch herself at the Vixens' shots for goal, hoisted by a teammate in the style of a rugby union lineout. Not every attempt worked, but a handful did - spectacularly.

But it isn't new, said former Australian keeper Liz Ellis.

''It has been thought of, and the reason it hasn't happened is because it's so hard to do,'' said Ellis. ''It's the type of thing that I would have loved to have done but was never quite good enough to do. It was brilliant. I loved it. I can't tell you how excited I was to see it.''

Crook did not discount it being used to market the game.

"We have not really got to that point yet because it obviously only happened yesterday [Sunday], but I think it's a marketing tool in itself because it's got people talking about the game."

The Mystics have for some time been secretly honing the defensive strategy during their training sessions in Auckland. Netball Australia's national director of umpiring, Chris Burton, had heard the whispers that the move was coming, but also that the Mystics were concerned about their ability to implement it successfully, and had made some discreet inquiries about whether the rules would allow it.

''I can't see too much that is wrong with it, in the sense that it's unorthodox, as opposed to illegal,'' Burton said. ''It is really just an attempt at intercepting a shot at goal, and I think it's incredibly clever.''

"We don't have that much experience in shooting this year. Mo'onia [Gerrard] is a little bulldog, she chases every ball down on court" ... Swifts centre and club co-captain Kimberlee Green. Photo: Getty Images

SWIFTS centre Kimberlee Green might have been appointed club co-captain yesterday but expects leadership from her whole team.

''What we've tried to do is make it so all the girls have the respect from everyone,'' the triple premiership player and world champion said. ''We're able to speak our minds. In previous years, there's been a gap where the old ones have taken control a bit more. Now all the girls are really standing up.''

Mo'onia Gerrard, 31, and Green, 25, were named co-captains, and Susan Pratley, 27, was appointed vice-captain by new coach Lisa Beehag. Gerrard and Green will share the role held by Catherine Cox, 35, who left the Swifts over the summer to join West Coast after a dispute with Beehag.

With Bec Bulley, Courtney Tairi and former coach Julie Fitzgerald also leaving, Gerrard, Green and Pratley remain three of the more experienced players in a relatively young NSW squad.

While the departures may have left fewer older heads to guide the youngsters at Homebush, Green says Beehag's new approach to leadership has resulted in greater responsibility across the squad.

''We're all a little bit different,'' Green said. ''Prats [Susan Pratley] is a quiet achiever and this year she's really stepped up to the mark and really pushed for being a leader with her shooting.

''We don't have that much experience in shooting this year. Mo'on [Gerrard] is a little bulldog, she chases every ball down on court. She's definitely someone who can change the momentum of the game and I think that's a great skill.''

While Green and Gerrard are yet to discuss how they intend to share duties, the understanding they have developed from playing together for many years will help address what could be a delicate balancing act. The strong partnership between the two will also be fundamental in how they manage to replace the guidance of Cox, who was also the incumbent Australian captain at the time of her departure.

''Obviously Cath was a great leader,'' Green said. ''I played with Cath for quite a while. I don't want to step into her shoes because I think we're all very different people. We'll try to do it our way. We have a new team, new coaching staff and we're able to build a new culture here.''

The Swifts begin their new campaign with an away game against Adelaide Thunderbirds on March 31.

Always in your face ... Mo'onia Gerrard will battle against Liana Leota. Photo: Marina Neil

WORLD champions Australia expect New Zealand's gun shooter Irene van Dyk to be back and firing for tomorrow's series-deciding Test in Melbourne.

The 201-Test veteran was left out of the Silver Ferns side for the Test in Adelaide, where the home side levelled the series with a 51-44 victory.

New Zealand's new coach Waimarama Taumaunu gave 24-year-old Cathrine Latu her first outing against the Diamonds but, with the Constellation Cup on the line, she's unlikely to again sideline the world's most experienced international shooter.

Van Dyk, 39, is set to resume her shooting partnership with Maria Tutaia, the same duo who were pipped by the Australians by one goal in extra time of the world championship final in July.

Diamonds defender Julie Corletto said her side was prepared for any line-up at Hisense Arena but anticipated van Dyk would play.

''We expect her to play but we'll be getting ourselves prepared for any combination that they put out,'' Corletto said. ''We've been playing on Irene for so many years now, so we had to readjust. It was good to play against Latu in Adelaide and we know that we can get the job done.''

Corletto said the Australians had an advantage in that while their squad was mostly very young, they'd all played at the highest level.

The Kiwis, meanwhile, were looking to blood some new players following the retirement of midcourter Temepara George, an injury to regular skipper Casey Williams and the unlikelihood of van Dyk and Leana de Bruin being around for the next world championships.

In the first of the Tests on Australian soil in Perth, the Diamonds let New Zealand get away to an 11-goal lead before they eventually succumbed 49-48. Corletto said the start would again be important.

''That was a big focus for us in Adelaide and having four consistent quarters,'' Corletto said.

She said the Diamonds wanted to finish the year, during which they also reclaimed the world No.1 ranking, on a high. ''Both teams will be coming out firing right from the start. We both want this series as much as each other,'' she said. ''Winning world champs this year was fantastic for us but we want to finish off the year on a good note and win the Constellation Cup.''

AAP

From nippers to netball ... Mo'onia Gerrard has excelled at a wide variety of sports after being brought up on Sydney's northern beaches. Photo: Getty Images

As the world championships approach, Diamonds defender Mo'onia Gerrard admits she did not really appreciate playing for her country until the day she could not.

You may find this hard to believe but I never aspired to play for the Australian Diamonds. In fact, my Test debut may be considered somewhat unintentional.

Growing up on Sydney's northern beaches, my childhood consisted of playing whatever sport I came across. Between me and my brother Mark, who has become a successful rugby player with the Wallabies, the family was split over the winter with our parents ferrying us to our respective sports. Dad took Mark to rugby, while mum was left with me.

I took up netball at age 12, when I joined a friend's team at the Narrabeen Youth Club. I can still remember my first training session on the outdoor grass courts. It wasn't the warmest of welcomes from the established players in the team, but my good friend Karen stuck by me. Together we progressed through the club ranks and then onto Manly representative teams. However, netball was never anything more than just another sport I played.

You might expect that winning the 2007 World Championship would be a highlight of my career since then. I'll cherish it forever. But I will always regard Manly-Warringah's victory in the 15/U State Age Championships as one of the most significant moments in my netball career. At the time I considered the State Age Championships as the pinnacle. So, after four years of trying, I was thrilled we finally won the title in 1995 with such a great bunch of girls. That was the moment I decided to continue in the sport.

I made my Diamonds debut in 2004 when I was 23 on our tour of South Africa.

I didn't really understand what it meant to play for Australia, nor did I know what I was doing. It wasn't until I did my ankle and ACL in consecutive years that it opened my eyes.

Sitting on the sideline watching the Diamonds was really difficult for me, but the injuries made me realise what I wanted to achieve and that I could try harder.

Being the first Diamond with a Pacific background, I'm heavily involved in helping Tongan netball because they have so much natural talent but lack coaching.

I've started organising an annual netball tournament and I donate all my shoes and training gear. Closer to home, I've started running South Pacific Indigenous netball clinics and would love to mentor a Tongan, islander or indigenous girl into an ANZ Championship team.

It's a been a fun journey to this point. Getting one Test cap was amazing. But to have represented Australia in the Commonwealth Games and a second World Championship, starting next week, is unbelievable.

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Diamonds are the world's best team

Australia players celebrate with the trophy after their victory in the final against New Zealand. Photo: Getty Images

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SINGAPORE: Australia last night retained the world netball championship with a third consecutive finals defeat of Commonwealth Games champion New Zealand, in a typically dramatic final decided 58-57 by a goal to young shooter Caitlin Bassett in the last second of overtime.

For much of the match it had seemed that, for the first time in its rich netball history, Australia would be left without one of the sport's two major titles after New Zealand's Commonwealth Games triumph in Delhi nine months ago. Indeed, Silver Fern Maria Tutaia missed a mid-range shot that would have sealed her team's victory, before Bassett coolly slotted the decider at the other end.

It was yet another classic chapter in a storied rivalry in which 39 of the 103 matches played have now been decided by five goals or less. The Diamonds are now unbeaten in world championship play since their finals loss to New Zealand in Jamaica in 2003, and have won or shared 10 of the 13 titles decided.

Mo'onia Gerrard of Australia, left, and Temepara George of New Zealand compete for the ball. Photo: Getty Images

Earlier, Bassett, whose half-time substitution had helped ignite the Diamonds' recovery from a six-goal deficit, had missed a shot in the dying seconds of regular time that would have won the final for Australia, leaving the scores locked at 46-46 and forcing a further seven minutes of play at each end.

Coach Norma Plummer retained the starting seven that thrashed Jamaica with surprising ease in the semi-finals, Susan Fuhrmann's good record against Irene van Dyk earning her the goalkeeper's bib ahead of the shorter Laura Geitz. The Ferns, meanwhile, opted their most attacking line-up, with Joline Henry at wing defence rather than Anna Scarlett, and the more experienced Leana de Bruin preferred to Katrina Grant in the defensive circle.

New Zealand started better, scoring five of the first seven goals despite some early inaccuracy from Tutaia. There were also some perplexing contact calls against the Australian defenders, including two in the opening minutes against Julie Corletto.

Despite drawing level just before quarter-time, two goals in the last minute to van Dyk gave the Ferns a 12-10 lead at the change, and the Australians' difficulty penetrating the circle prompted the introduction of Chelsea Pitman for Kim Green at wing attack in what was just the Queensland Firebird's seventh Test.

Still, the Ferns scored the first three goals of the second term to push their lead to five, as a lack of flow in the Diamonds' attack made scoring difficult. And, at the other end, the 39-year-old marvel who is van Dyk kept calmly slotting shot after shot - 17 without a miss to half-time, when New Zealand led 26-20.

Changes were needed, and they came in the form of Bassett replacing Cath Cox, and Geitz summoned to try to curb van Dyk. Plummer had been confident all week that her bench could make the difference and, indeed, the impact was immediate, with the Diamonds launching a run of seven consecutive goals in five minutes to draw level.

Bassett, who had missed just one goal in five matches in Singapore, had two chances to put Australia in front, but could not, yet when Natalie Medhurst did the honours almost seven minutes before three-quarter time the defending champions' momentum seemed irresistible.

Still, as ever, there were more twists to come. New Zealand led again by three early in the last term, only for a Geitz interception to help Australia pinch the lead back again with just under four minutes left.

The teams' last meeting in a major competition was at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, where New Zealand famously won 66-64 in double overtime to take the gold medal in one of the most dramatic matches in a storied trans-Tasman history littered with epic contests. This was among the most memorable.

The 2015 world championships will now be held in Sydney from August 9-16.

SINGAPORE: Australia's unpredictability is probably the biggest difference between the defending champions and world number one New Zealand, says former Silver Fern Belinda Colling.

Colling, who played 91 times for New Zealand between 1996 and 2006, said a young Australian team were less well known than the Silver Ferns' established side.

The Diamonds have seven players who are at their first world championship.

''There's that element of surprise or unexpectedness about the Aussies. That can be a good or a bad thing. The series prior showed that the teams are level-pegging at this stage, and it can go either way.''

Colling was part of the New Zealand team that lost in heartbreaking circumstances in Christchurch in 1999 and won in Jamaica in 2003.

The ability to handle the increased intensity of a world championship would be the key for whichever team won this year's edition, Colling said.

''These big tournaments, it's about who is going to absorb the pressure and stress on that big day. Both teams have got to make the final yet, and they both have a hurdle before they get there.''

Australian coach Norma Plummer is taking no chance with her team's world title defence, and has studied up on their first opponent at the world championship.

The Diamonds are expected to cruise through their pool games, starting with world No.11 Samoa today.

They then face Northern Ireland tomorrow and Sri Lanka on Wednesday, with Australia's first real challenge not expected until the semi-finals on Saturday, when they are likely to face Jamaica.

But Plummer said she wanted her players to be fully prepared for their matches against the minnows, and has studied footage of the Samoans playing the Australian under-19 team.

Samoa, whom the Diamonds have faced at the past two world championships, managed only ninth at last year's Commonwealth Games after finishing fifth at the 2006 Games.

''I'm always really respectful of any team that's in a world championship - you just never know,'' Plummer said before a training session in Singapore.

She said she was hoping one of the pool opponents would challenge her world No.2-ranked side.

''You often hope that you get a couple of teams that are really quite good so that you get a better game out of it,'' she said. ''You don't want to be winning by 113 to 10. That does nothing for you. You need good competition.''

Plummer is expected to give most of her players a run in the opening match at Singapore Indoor Stadium, with goaler Erin Bell to make her Test debut and defender Mo'onia Gerrard set to claim her 50th cap.

After making her Test debut in 2004, Gerrard has established herself as one of the world's most ferociously athletic defenders.

However, the 30-year-old believes it's memories rather than numbers that are most important.

''I'm not really one for milestones,'' Gerrard said. ''It's the moments that you cherish the most leading up to a campaign like this, and the memories.''

AAP

On rotation ... Mo'onia Gerrard (left), Sonia Mkolama and Rebecca Bulley will anchor the NSW defensive line. Photo: Peter Rae

THEY promise to form netball's version of the Great Wall of China.

In Rebecca Bulley, Sonia Mkoloma and Mo'onia Gerrard, the NSW Swifts boast what is probably the most intimidating defensive line-up the trans-Tasman championship has seen.

Add fringe Australian squad player Kim Smith - who has taken six months off from her job as a lawyer to concentrate on her wing defence spot - and it's easy to see why the Swifts go into the championship's fourth season full of confidence about having a better year than they did in 2010.

Last year the Swifts became the first side to go through a regular season undefeated, only to crash in the finals. This year bookies believe they will go all the way, with TAB Sportsbet listing them as $3 favourites.

The season starts on Sunday with a blockbuster between the Swifts and reigning champions the Adelaide Thunderbirds at Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre.

When the two sides met in last year's finals series, it was one of the most physical games the championship had witnessed, with Swifts captain and goal shooter Catherine Cox forced off the court by a broken nose.

Bulley, an Australian Diamonds representative, was the trans-Tasman championship's player of the year in 2010.

Mkoloma, England's co-captain, is back for her second season with the Swifts in the world's top club netball competition after defying her country's demand that she stay at home this year to prepare for the world championships.

The icing on the cake is tough-as-nails Australian Diamond Gerrard, back in Sydney after three years with the Thunderbirds.

With four strong players rotating through the goal defence, goalkeeper and wing defence positions, Cox struggles to see any opposition attack line getting on top of her team's ''spectacular'' defensive wall.

Swifts coach Julie Fitzgerald agrees. ''I think what the Swifts have this year is undoubtedly the deepest team in the league,'' Fitzgerald said. ''We don't have a weak spot.''

Netball star Mo'onia Gerrard. Photo: Brendan Esposito

Free spirited Mo'onia Gerrard honed her competitive edge taking on the boys in sport, writes Rupert Guinness.

MO'ONIA Gerrard admits that at times she can be a bit of a ''smart arse'' on the court. And she won't deny that she likes to get physical. ''People say that …'' she says with a cheeky grin.

But when she muscles up as goal defence for Australia or the NSW Swifts, don't suggest she oversteps the line of fair play. ''Dirty is cheap,'' she says - but without a smile. She cites some common underhanded ploys such as coming in late and charging at the hips, grabbing an opponent's hands or standing on their feet. Elbows to the eye are not out of the question, but mostly accidental.

''I'm not out trying to punch someone up. I'm a little aggressive getting to the ball,'' she says. ''But I'd like to think I do it the clean way - not go through you. But if you're in my way …''

Gerrard doesn't need to finish her sentence. You get the idea - best not to get in her way.

As for the ''smart arse'' in her? Well, the 29-year-old daughter of a Tongan mother, Kalasi, and Australian father, Mark, says that comes out more when she is struggling to contain her frustration over an umpire's call. ''I have to hold my breath most of the time,'' she says. ''I can't go and rip the umpires heads off. I'm probably more so a smart arse on the court to the umpires in terms of giving them a cheeky smile and a wink. I don't really sledge. The only thing that gets me is when [players] fall over and do the Hollywood limelight [thing]. I hate that.

''It's not soccer or anything. And there are some girls who are a bit soft in the head.''

Sounds familiar? Like talk you would hear from a Wallaby or an NRL player? Maybe.

But it doesn't surprise her brother, Mark Gerrard, or her cousin, Wycliff Palu, when Mo'onia talks that way. The two Wallabies grew up with her physicality and competitiveness on Sydney's northern beaches.

The rugby stars say the Mo'onia of today is no different to the one they scrapped and fought with in many games of backyard footy in and around North Narrabeen.

She plays as hard as she commits to following sport, from her favourite NRL side Manly to the Wallabies and, more recently, watching golf ''to test my patience - everything is about perfection''.

But you can tell the sibling rivalry that began on the touch footy field is still there today. While 12 months older than Mark, she jokes: ''He looks like he is older than me because he is married and has three kids.'' But then the older sister comes out: ''He always wanted to challenge me, but I would just shake my head and say: 'Here we go again … beat you!' ''

Mark laughs when he is told how Mo'onia reveals how he would prefer to build sandcastles on the beach than race nippers at North Narrabeen Surf Club. ''I was so competitive,'' she says.

But he agrees: ''Yeah … it's true. I was not that highly motivated. She was feisty, aggressive in everything she did.'' Then, as if to prove the point, he recounts how one morning at breakfast his big sister angrily ''threw butter all over me'' when he took the knife to butter his toast.

Palu never regarded Mo'onia as anything other than another player when she and Mark joined him and his siblings - Muti, Salote, Rowana and Mark - to play touch footy that occasionally did include tackles. ''She was a tomboy and would always play. And she didn't just make up numbers,'' Palu says. ''She was tough. I didn't see her as a girl.''

Gerrard's choice of netball as the pathway to follow came by chance. She took up the sport only at the age of 12 to help out a team that was short on players. She didn't believe she had a big future in the sport until 2004, when she missed the season with an ankle injury that was followed by a knee reconstruction in 2005 that ruled her out of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

''I didn't realise my potential. I just went through the motions,'' Gerrard, who was a star in Australia's 2007 world championship-winning team, says of the turning in her life.

For much of her existence before then, she found touch football, which she played to Year 12, ''more exciting'' than netball. Throughout her teens as a North Narrabeen High School student, she competed in numerous sports - from athletics, surf lifesaving and netball to basketball, baseball, touch football, golf and vigoro, a cross between cricket and baseball played by women.

Gerrard was always a ''free spirit''. And through her junior girls' active wear clothing line Mon that prompted her return to Sydney from the Adelaide Thunderbirds, she encourages the same of today's youth - ''to have a crack'' in life when they are young, rather than ''fall off the perch''.

Gerrard realises not everyone is blessed with the sports genes in the same way she and her brother Mark and cousin Wycliff have been. Her mother Kalasi and aunty Keta - Palu's mother - were both athletes. Kalasi was in the Tongan team as a sprinter for the 1971 South Pacific Games in Papeete, Tahiti. Keta was also a sprinter and represented Tonga in the 1966 Games in Noumea, New Caledonia and in the 1969 Games at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea where she won the gold medal in the 100 metres, 200m, 80m hurdles and pentathlon and was voted best athlete.

Keta also competed at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Gerrard's concern that young female Tongans are not reaching their potential has moved her to start a netball program that she hopes will see Tonga's return to the international netball stage with the Pacific island nations of Fiji, Samoa and Cook Islands.

Gerrard is very ''tight'' with her heritage. ''I want someone to fill my spot. I was the first Islander to represent Australia, so I don't want that to die,'' she says. ''I want to push girls into sport. It's not only about going home and cooking dinner for your dad or husband or whatever.''

Gerrard: the highs and lows

1992: Debuts for Narrabeen Primary School netball team.

1992: Debuts for Narrabeen Youth.

1992: Selected for NSW Primary School Sports Association squad.

1992-95: Competes in Regionals - Metropolitan North.

1995: Wins state under-15s title with Manly-Warringah rep team.

1995-99: Accepted by NSW Institute of Sport.

1996-97: Picked in NSW Under-17 squad.

1997-98: Selected for NSW Combined High Schools.

1998: Selected for Sydney Sandpipers.

1998-99: NSW State Under-19s.

1998-2001: Australian Under-21s.

1999: Joins Sydney Sandpipers.

1999: Wins Commonwealth Bank Trophy for best new talent.

1999-2000: Selected for NSW State Under-21s

1999,2002-4: Competed for NSW State Open squad.

2001 to present: Australian Diamonds squad member.

2003: Shares Commonwealth Bank Trophy player's player award.

2004: Joins Sydney Swifts after demise of Sydney Sandpipers at end of 2003.

2004: Selected to play for Australia for the first time, against the Silver Ferns.

2004: Ankle injury forces her to miss most of the season.

2005: A knee injury curtails her comeback to competition.

2006: A second knee injury and reconstruction forces her to miss Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, where Australia lose gold medal final to New Zealand.

2007: Helps Australia win world championship at Auckland, New Zealand

2008: Joins Adelaide Thunderbirds.

2008: Voted Australian international player of the year.

2010: Helps Thunderbirds to win new ANZ trans-Tasman Championship.

2010: Selected for Australia to compete at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India.

2011: Returns to Sydney to rejoin NSW Swifts and pursue her active-wear business.