The Adelaide Thunderbirds expect to have captain Hannah Petty back this weekend after making significant progress on a “frustrating” ankle injury she picked up in pre-season.
The 25-year-old is set to be named later today in the Thunderbirds’ team to play the Melbourne Vixens in Adelaide on Saturday.
Petty hurt the left ankle in a pre-season match against the Sunshine Coast Lightning in Bendigo in February, forcing her out of the Team Girls Cup on the Gold Coast later that month, where her side made the final but lost to the West Coast Fever.
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After playing 17 minutes in the round one win over the Queensland Firebirds, the wing defence reaggravated the injury in the abandoned game at Netball SA Stadium in round two.
She played the first 10 minutes of that match, which was delayed due to an issue with decals, but came off during a time-out just before the quarter-time break and didn’t return. Petty then sat out the next two games against the Lightning and Giants.
Coach Tania Obst told The Down Low Petty had made “significant progress in the past couple of weeks”.
“(She is) tracking well for a return to play this weekend against the Vixens,” Obst said.
Sources say Petty’s injury has been a “frustrating” one, as it’s taken longer than anticipated to heal. The SA product has had several stints on the sideline in her elite career with foot injuries and also concussion.
In other good news for the pink army, Jamaican defender Shamera Sterling is fully fit after appearing to hurt herself in the third quarter in the loss to the Giants at the weekend.
Sterling – who is leading the league for defensive rebounds and deflections and sitting third for intercepts – limped off the court at three-quarter-time after hurting her right calf or ankle in a landing moments earlier. The Sunny Girl star returned after the break and finished the match.
Obst told The Down Low Sterling had trained “without issue this week” and is “ready to go”.
Giants land first win against Tbirds | 01:23
Brisbane Arena to be ‘all yellow’ for Simpson
Brisbane Arena is set to be a sea of celebratory yellow to honour Queensland Firebird Gabi Simpson as she plays her 150th national league game on Sunday.
The club will hand out 1000 yellow ribbons, which Simpson is famous for wearing, to fans ahead of the Birdies’ clash with the top-of-the-table West Coast Fever to honour one of its most decorated players and captains.
NSW-born Simpson was lured north to join the Firebirds in 2013 and became a purple legend in the ensuing years, which saw success after success.
A fierce specialist wing defence, Simpson played in four consecutive ANZ Championship grand finals from 2013, winning in 2015 and 2016, and also played 41 Tests for her country after debuting under former coach Lisa Alexander in 2015.
She won the Liz Ellis Diamond – netball’s highest individual honour – in 2017 and was part of the Australian side which took silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Playing for Australia at under-19 level, 176cm Simpson started wearing a yellow ribbon in her curly hair to remind herself “of the girl who just played netball because she loved the sport.”
“Whenever I’m on the court and things are getting a bit serious and challenging, it’s there to tell me why I play,” the 30-year-old said earlier this week.
And why yellow? “Because it’s a bright colour, a happy colour.”
Vixen quartet make a ‘very hard day a lot better’
A day before hosting the Lightning at John Cain Arena, four Melbourne Vixens visited Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital as part of the Good Friday Appeal.
And for one young family from the tiny northern Victoria town of Cohuna, meeting Liz Watson, Kate Moloney, Jo Weston and Em Mannix was a bright moment in a trying week.
Tenielle and Jye Edge found themselves in the hospital last week after their 14-week-old daughter Oakie, who has supraventricular tachycardia – a dangerous condition characterised by an irregularly fast heartbeat – had an episode and had to be flown to Melbourne.
After several days in intensive care, Oakie was moved to the cardiac ward, where the Vixens did the rounds.
“It’s been a scary time and obviously living regionally, we hadn’t had any visitors, so we were happy for the distraction, so we said we’d be okay for people to pop by,” Tenielle, now home in Cohuna with a healthy Oakie, told The Down Low.
“As someone who loves netball and grew up watching and going to ANZ Championship games, I was so happy to see the Vixens.
“They were extraordinarily kind and gentle and just lovely humans. I told them all about my home club Macorna Football/Netball Club and they asked lots of questions. They made a very hard day a lot better.”
A Vixens spokesperson said the players visited several areas of the hospital, meeting kids of various ages and their families.
“It was a privilege for Liz, Kate, Jo and Em to meet some incredibly brave kids and their families, who manage to be so resilient in the face of heartbreaking challenges, and the opportunity to meet some of the amazing doctors, nurses, staff and volunteers at the hospital was inspiring,” the spokesperson said.
While Collingwood netballers didn’t take part in Good Friday visits, as part of the build-up to the weekend’s Community Round, they visited the Magpie Nest Café in Melbourne.
The café is part of a program designed to help people experiencing homelessness and disadvantage by providing a network of support services and a pathway to independent living.
On Easter Monday, the NSW Swifts celebrated The Kids’ Cancer Project, and the Giants have an ongoing partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities Greater Western Sydney. All other Super Netball clubs also have charity partners.
Vixens lock in third straight victory | 00:51
The ‘dark arts’ of banter on show
Super Netball isn’t renowned for cheeky club-versus-club banter or sassy crowd moments, but it seems franchises and fans alike are upping their game in 2023.
It started with a cardboard arrow in the crowd at Collingwood’s home game against the Firebirds at John Cain Arena on Sunday, which helped the umpires and fans keep track of whose centre was next – referencing the double centre pass debacle in the Pies’ loss to the Vixens earlier this season.
Sitting among Collingwood fans, the ‘confusion clarifier’ studiously flipped the arrow, emblazoned with THIS WAY in black lettering, after each goal throughout the game and drew a few cheers as those around the arena spotted it.
Then, the next day, the song played when West Coast Fever players and staff entered Ken Rosewall Arena for the match against the NSW Swifts, raised a few eyebrows.
It was The Imperial March, the ominous theme used to introduce Star Wars villain Darth Vader in the famous movies.
Does that mean Dan Ryan’s unbeaten Fever side lives on the “dark side”? If Fever players are Sith, are the Swifts Jedi? And Briony Akle netball Yoda? Jokes aside, it’s a great way to drive engagement and get fans, new and old, talking.
While Fever was on the receiving end in Sydney on Sunday, intro music shenanigans aren’t new. In Collingwood’s first few years in the league, the newly-minted team was introduced to ABBA’s Money, Money, Money at RAC Arena.
A Fever spokesperson said nowadays song selection at RAC Arena in Perth is “totally up to the DJ on the day.”
