Mavericks coach Tracey Neville assesses team’s maiden Super Netball campaign and 2025 hopes
Melbourne Mavericks were the new kids on the Super Netball block in 2024, narrowly missing out on finishing in the top four in their debut season, but Tracey Neville isn’t offering any excuses for not playing finals.
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Melbourne Mavericks coach Tracey Neville has declared there are “no excuses” for Super Netball’s newest franchise failing to make the finals in an injury-ravaged debut season as the team turns its attention to making sure it avoids a case of “second-year blues”.
Reflecting on the team’s inaugural Super Netball campaign, Neville has refused to blame a horror run with injuries in the lead-up to their league launch for the team narrowly missing out on a finals berth.
The Mavericks, who replaced Collingwood in the Super Netball competition in 2024, fell just short of a maiden finals appearance, falling outside of the top four only by percentage.
Neville and the Mavericks had set the bar high for year one, but their campaign was dealt a significant blow after a pair of serious preseason injuries.
Goaler Sasha Glasgow (fractured leg) and defender Lauren Parkinson (nee Moore, ACL) were both ruled out for the year and will essentially become new recruits for the team’s sophomore season.
While acknowledging the impact of the injuries on the group, Neville did not want to use them as a defence for the team missing finals.
“I think it’s the first time I’ve not been in finals, which was difficult to say,” Neville said.
“We obviously got placed joint fourth and lost out on goal percentage, but goal percentage is one game.
“Other people (might say) it was the start of a franchise and with some of the injuries we had going into the season (it was commendable), but for me there are no excuses on that.
“We are out here to put out a performance and one of our main aims is to get into that finals series.
“But if I look at the performance from the team and say it was a group of players that had no history together, had not created a relationships, about some of the battles we came through during the season both on and off court, I feel like you would like to say that it was a world-class performance from the playing and staff group.
“You want to build on that and you want to get better and better and with that understanding in the background, sometimes you have to go through the low points to be able to appreciate the high ones.”
As the Mavericks filtered back for the start of its second pre-season campaign, the former England Roses mentor was confident the team could be a premiership contender in 2025 with its best line-up on court.
The Mavericks have made just the one change to their original contracted 10 for next year with club champion Shimona Jok coming into the squad for Gabby Sinclair.
But Neville said the Mavericks had to turn their record around against the top teams if they were to have any chance of challenging next season after failing to beat the Thunderbirds, Vixens and Fever in season 2024.
“One of the disappointing things that we didn’t do last year, we weren’t able to beat one of the top three teams,” Neville said.
“Those that placed 1-3 on the ladder were the only teams that we did not get a win against and so that is something that we have to really improve on this year.
“We have obviously freshened up our (contracted 10), bringing Shimona in and we’ll hopefully have Sasha, touch wood, back out on court and obviously we will look to bring in Loz Parkinson as well.
“When I look at where we needed to make improvements, those improvements have already been made and will be made in this sort of pre-season phase.
“The style of play that we wanted to go into last year completely changed due to an injury with Sasha, so now we have been able to build on that, but also bring in the style that was actually one of our strengths last year with a prop shooter, which is a style that we didn’t (plan to) go into year one doing.”
After the “novelty” surrounding the team’s inaugural season, Mavericks general manager Shae Bolton-Brown was wary of the danger of “second-year blues” impacting not just players, but the club as a whole.
The former midcourter said maintaining the club’s “energy” on and off the court was critical to ensuring its growth.
“Next year I want to maintain the same energy . that is absolutely top of the list for me,” Bolton-Brown said.
“Second-year blues is something that can happen to players, but also clubs.
“In that first year there is so much energy and novelty and everything is new, so there is this natural energy.
“Going into year two maintaining that high energy from a playing and staffing perspective is top of my agenda because that is only going to translate to results on the court and building the fan base.”
Owing to injuries, Bolton-Brown said the “dream group” of players the Mavericks initially envisaged taking to the court had still not yet had the chance to play together, which she predicted would make a “significant difference” in year two.
“In those initial recruitment conversations when we were looking at the dream group of players that we wanted, we still haven’t had that group of players play together yet,” Bolton-Brown said.
“So that initial thesis on your recruitment strategy which we wanted to pull together has never played together.
“That is something that is exciting for us and why we didn’t want to make any wholesale changes to our list going into the second year because we have got two players that are going to be coming back into our side – all going to plan – we think will make a significant difference.”
The Mavericks hope Glasgow and Parkinson will be ready for the start, if not early, next season, but neither of the pair will be rushed over the pre-season.
Goal shooter Eleanor Cardwell also underwent minor knee surgery last month after aggravating a knee injury during international duties for England, but she was also expected to start building into her pre-season soon.
“They are doing so well considering where they have come from,” Neville said of the two long-term injuries.
“Particularly Sasha …. it’s a loading injury and specific management around that is key. But the pleasure on my face when she did a moving shooting session … it was like giving a dog a bone.
“This is a pre-season, this is an opportunity for us to manipulate load from our perspective, so that for me does not need to be rushed this side of Christmas.
“Hopefully she will get to play some sort of in-house games …. the highlight for us would be a return to play around February/ March when we start to get into pre-season (games).
“Loz is a little bit more because ACL’s take a little bit longer, but it would be around that particular period.”
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