Two years after the dramatic end to her Super Netball career with the Collingwood collapse, former England champion Geva Mentor is now crossing multiple countries in a crazy eight-hour journey to keep herself on court.

In what shapes as the popular goal keeper’s farewell domestic season in the England Super League, Mentor is going to extraordinary lengths for one final hurrah with Leeds Rhinos.

Now based in France with her husband, Mentor is regularly making eight-hour journeys across three countries each way for training and matches – all at the age of 40.

Mentor’s ultimate netball road trip starts in Strasbourg in eastern France where her new home is. From there, Mentor takes an hour-and-half train ride to Saint-Louis, near the Swiss and German borders before hopping onto a bus to take her to Basel in Switzerland.

In Basel, she will board an almost two-hour flight to Manchester in the UK.

Sometimes her coach will pick her up at Manchester Airport, otherwise she jumps on another train from Manchester to Leeds before finishing the journey with an Uber to the stadium.

It’s a biweekly tri-country trip which Mentor admits sometimes leaves her feeling “absolutely exhausted” even before she has hit the court for training, but is determined to make the most of what time she has left out on court.

“I won’t lie, it’s not easy. It’s definitely one of those situations where you think you should be kind of winding down,” Mentor told Code Sports from the UK this week.

“Last year, I lived in Leeds which was super easy. I was still doing a bit of the long distance thing with the husband, but now I’m fully at home and immersed in French life and flying in and flying out for the games.

“For me, it often takes eight hours door-to-door to get from home to training. Pre-season was pretty tricky because I was coming in for the three sessions during the week and back again on the weekend for team building or match play.

“During the season now there are a few weeks where I am in for the whole week otherwise I will come in and try and time it so I’m in for the game, stay a couple of days for training and then out so I am home for two or three days.

“I felt really spoiled in Australia because you could just hop on a flight and fly anywhere any time of day – whereas here we have airports but they just don’t marry up. We have an airport in Leeds and an airport in Strasbourg but they don’t connect.

“I fly out of Switzerland into Manchester and then get the train up. It all adds up, but I’m doing all right, I’m starting to manage and coping with it now as I’m settling in.

“But you get into your (training/playing) environment, you’ve got to give all of your energy, you’ve got to make it work being there and not come in thinking ‘I’m absolutely exhausted’, which often I am.”

FAREWELL TOUR

One of the original and most popular imports playing in the former trans-Tasman competition and then Super Netball, Mentor played for four different teams across a 16-year career in Australia.

She had stints with the Adelaide Thunderbirds, Melbourne Vixens, Sunshine Coast Lightning and the now defunct Magpies before returning to the UK.

Mentor retired from international netball after the 2023 Netball World Cup with 175 Test caps for the Roses before returning to her English netball roots in the Super League.

Now in her second season with Leeds, Mentor is certain this season will be her last.

“You know (it’s time) when you would rather just be home and you start really missing out on what your family are doing. We’ve got two young kids from my husband’s previous relationship and all those sort of fun things,” Mentor said.

“For me, it has definitely turned and I have got to the point where I actually enjoy the training environment more than the games and I think that’s when I know there has been a shift in my mental approach to my career.

“I definitely think I am winding down and it’s ready for someone else to take the reins at the back. I am imparting as much (knowledge) as I can with the team that we’ve got around us.

“I am always one (who is) wanting to leave a place better than when I came in and English netball is going through a transitional stage and people do look to me because I have that experience and I’m hoping that can help.

“It wasn’t just me finishing off my career, it’s me trying to do what I can to push our sport forward.”

SUPER LEAGUE ‘SHAMBLES’

While Mentor felt it was important to impart her wisdom as the Super League moved into a “professional era”, the champion defender said the competition had a “long way to go”.

Mentor’s Leeds Rhinos appealed the result of their match against the Birmingham Panthers last week after a scoring controversy – and she said it was the latest in a long line of issues impacting the league.

“What has gone on this year has been so disappointing and we have got a long way to go,” said Mentor, who is also now working as the performance director for Netball France.

“I don’t know if you’re aware of the live-streaming issues with feeds being cut off and scores being wrong and times being wrong.

“We had a debacle (in our game) which we have been radio-silenced for a bit and I am just ready to unleash once our appeal has gone through and whatever the outcome is, but it’s a shambles.

“There are so many passionate people in this sport and wanting to push it on, but we are just not helping the growth of the sport.

“If this league is serious about wanting to go professional …. there are so many areas that need to be looked at because people are not going to watch and they are not going to come to the game.

“Our ticket sales are down across the board this year, it’s really disappointing because the sport has got so much potential and these things that keep happening are frustrating people.

“I have got a whole French community now starting to get interested in a sport they have never heard of and they are looking at it like it’s a farmer’s league. They’re like ‘What is this?’ …. This is a shitshow’.”

THE MAGPIES END

Two years on, Mentor remains saddened at the way her playing days in Super Netball ended after the demise of the Collingwood team in 2023.

While she knew she was coming to the end of her playing career in Australia, Mentor said the Magpies’ exit hastened her move back to the UK.

“My heart just went out to all the other girls,” said Mentor, who was Magpies’ co-captain in their final season.

“I obviously knew that I was coming towards the end of my career and I was going to make some big decisions, but who knows I may have played on an extra year there if Magpies had stuck around.

“I was so thankful SEN got behind the (Melbourne) Mavericks and created a team and provided an opportunity for a lot of those girls.

“It is just such a shame because the Magpies are a huge club in Australia in terms of football and they obviously believe in their women’s programs but I don’t know if they just used us or if it just got too hard with the financial restraints that they couldn’t see through it.

“But I believe everything happens for a reason and I think a lot of those girls have gone on to do better things and have actually found their way even though it was really stressful at the time.”

Mentor said her final season in Super Netball was the toughest she had ever been through.

“I have never been pushed like that through a season in terms of you’re playing, but what are you playing for? You normally go out and play for the strip you are wearing and the pride of your logo, whereas now we are just playing for each other.

“Our very last game against Fever was a testament to that where we managed to win over in Tasmania and it was a fantastic way to end our journey together and it became about us.

“That’s what really brought us together and we’ll always have that little connection between us all no matter where we all end up.”

While Mentor said her manager explored “some options” for her to continue playing Super Netball, she felt “it was the right time” at the end of the Magpies’ final season to return home.

“I’m very thankful and grateful for the opportunities that I had and the career that I had and Australia has definitely shaped me. I definitely feel like I have grown up in Australia.”

FERTILITY AND FAMILY

Mentor has been open in the past about her decision to have her eggs frozen as an insurance policy for her future.

While Mentor has made the move back to live on the other side of the world, her eggs remain here in Australia.

Mentor said she had investigated private transportation of the eggs, either to France or the UK, but is first trying to fall pregnant naturally before she takes that path.

“The eggs are still out in Australia. You can actually pay for private transportation if I wanted to bring them back to this side of the world I could,” Mentor said.

“I’m still trying to fall pregnant naturally but if that gets to a stage where that does get too hard, I will look to explore that option with my eggs and whether I go back out to Australia to do that pathway or whether we do that in the UK or France.

“It will be something I will chat through with my husband. Definitely wanting a family is still very high on my priority list and hoping that I haven’t left it too late.”

Mentor said she hoped the subject of fertility was something more sportswomen openly discussed and investigated.

“One thing I encourage women, especially as they are going through sport, is to just have those check ups and make sure you do everything you can because it’s funny now how much I know so much about my cycle and your ovulation and your window of opportunity and how minimal it actually is,” Mentor said.

“We spend all this time trying not to get pregnant and actually it’s really hard to bloody get pregnant and if you do get pregnant being able to keep it and maintain it.

“It is something I am still very passionate about and hopefully I can have that journey myself, but who knows what the future holds and what’s in store for me.”