‘The naysayers need to stop’: Why superstar will go down as one of netball greats

Let’s not be mistaken – five-time Super Netball MVP Jhaniele Fowler is bloody good at what she does and will go down as one of the all-time greats, if not the best of all time.

The West Coast Fever goal shooter makes her role look easy, but that’s just what champions do – they look like they’ve got time with the ball and look like they’ve got space.

So that’s probably where people come in and go – well look how easy it is to do that!

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And sometimes that can be misinterpreted as ‘she’s not that great’ given her 198cm frame.

But it frustrates me endlessly because people see Jhaniele, they see her height, which is an absolute attribute to her, and then they minimise her capabilities.

And I think that’s really disrespectful to Jhaniele.

I think it’s disrespectful to tall athletes and disrespectful to every athlete around Jhaniele that have to craft a skill to get the ball to her – it’s not easy. And it’s not easy in the best netball competition in the world.

To actual bind together the story of Jhaniele and then respect that every week she steps out and does what she does – the naysayers need to stop.

They need to turn their negative attack on one of the best shooters the world has ever seen in netball – alongside the Irene van Dyks of the world, the Vicki Wilson’s of the world, Jhaniele is right up there if not the best we’ve ever seen – and actually appreciate her for her brilliance.

She works very, very hard at what she does week in, week out – not dissimilar to a small midcourter or a midsized defender. Height isn’t everything.

Her ability to shoot the volume she does with the accuracy she does, take the knocks and continue to find a way to be the best is what we should celebrate.

I would invite anybody that thinks what they watch Jhaniele Fowler do on a netball court is as simplistic as their 23 comments in a Twitter social media account to come down and watch her train.

Come down and see what she does.

Understand that her height is simply one aspect of her delivering what she does and be the league’s best five times in a row. That’s not a fluke.

That’s not because she’s 198cm tall – that’s because she is an absolute champion. She is elite at what she does.

If you were to actually spend time and took a statistic on the amount of times Jhaniele is contacted across the season, I think you’d get a real understanding of the physical toll netball has on her.

Coming up against Jhaniele, defenders are having to try everything they can and what she wears in a game and then has to manage between weeks is quite enormous.

The fact she does it and gets back up and goes again is extraordinary.

To think she’s hardly missed a game since she graced Australia is actually quite phenomenal. It speaks again to the champion that she is.

Having watched Jhaniele and now worked alongside her, she has a unique attribute about her that not every elite athlete has – she’s just got a champion mindset.

These sorts of athletes, these sorts of people, human beings, are few and far between in life and in sport.

I think netball is so privileged to have someone like her come in and do what she does week in, week out. It’s her champion mindset that stamps her out as the difference between a professional elite netballer that we love to watch to an absolute superstar that graces our courts.

She’s very diligent in everything she does.

She’s a competitive beast – even in warm up drills, she doesn’t like to lose. It’s actually quite hysterical to watch.

When she walks to a goal post to put up shots in a training environment, she’s very switched on and focused and in game mode.

Everything she does, she does with a purpose.

I don’t think anybody could ever understand someone like a Jhaniele Fowler and the sacrifices she’s had to make – leaving her family and young daughter behind to make a name for herself in netball.

I’ve seen Jhaniele in probably her more darker moments.

Particularly during Covid, the struggles of concern around not being with her family, the struggles of am I doing the right thing? Should I be here in Australia trying to be the greatest role model and breadwinner for my family, or should I be back nurturing alongside my family?

Those questions almost taunted her over the last few years.

We’ve tried to support someone being a mum from a distance, and we’ve seen how big a sacrifice that has been for her.

It’s hard to comprehend for those on the outside looking in.

But it speaks to that champion mindset – Jhaniele’s got something in her that says I need to be the best.

So she’s gone and pursued the game that she loves to be the best, and anything less than that would be a contradiction to the reason she came out and sacrificed so much.

I actually asked her the question, with her family now alongside her in WA, can she still be the best?

But it’s actually a luxury now, going home every day to her daughter and fiancé. And I think she’s proving my question that she can.

Jhaniele Fowler has got more years in this game, certainly at SSN level. I’d dearly love to see Jhaniele continue to do that and with the West Coast Fever.

I feel confident that that’s something she’ll want to discuss and certainly the West Coast Fever will want to discuss.

But those discussions won’t happen until the job is done in South Africa, where Jhaniele will play a key role for Jamaica at the World Cup.

Jhaniele is a fiercely proud Jamaican athlete and her journey out here in Australia is 100% connected back to her homeland.

Everything she is doing and crafting out here, while she speaks very highly and passionately about Western Australia and making it her home, it is also about going back and representing her country with pride and taking back the strengths that all Jamaican players are gaining out here in SSN.

As we know they don’t have the resources that the top three nations in the world have, but they certainly have the depth of talent.

I know Jhaniele is so focused on this World Cup, and she wants to make sure that in SSN she is prepping and priming herself to be the best she possibly can be – and it’s an unbelievable benefit to the West Coast Fever.

You don’t get in the way of a Jamaican.