Adelaide Thunderbirds dual premiership captain Hannah Petty announces her retirement from netball

An Adelaide Thunderbirds star has announced her retirement from netball, but she admits her special place in the club’s history still does not sit comfortably with her.

Adelaide Thunderbirds midcourt veteran Hannah Petty admits she is still coming to terms with the title of dual premiership captain and her special place in the club’s history after calling time on her netball career.

Petty revealed she was in tears in “emotional scenes” with her teammates after sharing her retirement news with them after Sunday’s home semi-final loss to the Melbourne Vixens, which brought the club’s Super Netball three-peat dream to an end.

The 28-year-old confirmed on Thursday the 2025 campaign would be her last, a decade after making her debut with the Thunderbirds as a teenager.

Petty has spent the last six years as captain of the T-Birds, leading the team to back-to-back flags in 2023 and 2024 and retires as a one-club player with 110 games to her name across the former ANZ Championship and Super Netball.

“It (retirement) has probably been bubbling away subconsciously in my mind potentially all year without me giving it too much thought,” Petty said.

Sophie Casey, Tayla Williams and Hannah Petty of the Thunderbirds dejected after losing the Super Netball minor semi-final match against the Melbourne Vixens at Adelaide Entertainment Centre. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

“I just think it was time for me to hang up the bib and move onto my next chapter and my parents and family were all very supportive of that and I’m just looking forward to what’s next and appreciating everything that I have had as well.

“I told the team after our last game, so after the semi-final just in the changerooms. I didn’t want anyone to know pre-game, it’s all about the team, so I wanted to tell them afterwards.

“It was pretty emotional scenes and I think everyone was crying, including myself. But it was a super-special moment that I will never forget.”

Hailing from the small town of Wudinna on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, Petty was just 18 when she made her debut for the Thunderbirds in 2016 in the final year of the former trans-Tasman competition.

Petty was named Thunderbirds captain in 2020 before leading the team to the first of back-to-back flags in 2023.

The following year she entered an exclusive group as the third T-Birds captain to win dual premierships, joining club greats Kath Harby-Williams and Nat von Bertouch.

She was also just the second captain to secure back-to-back championships for the club after Harby-Williams in 1998-99.

“It probably hasn’t sunk in that I actually am (a dual premiership captain),” Petty said.

“People that have gone before me in Nat von Bertouch and Kath Harby-Williams are icons of netball and icons of T-Birds as well.

“It doesn’t really sit that comfortably with me that I am up there and named with them, but obviously with time I will probably reflect on that a little bit more and it is super special to have won two premierships because I know how hard they are to come by.

Hannah Petty of the Thunderbirds high fives from teammates.

“I still can’t believe that we have won back-to-back and unfortunately we didn’t win the third this year, but I am still super lucky to have won one because some people don’t even get that opportunity.”

Petty said she was now excited to move onto the next phase of her life, moving to South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula and becoming a teacher.

“I’ve played my last game and (I’m) sad to be leaving, but also really excited about my next chapter and what is going to happen within that,” Petty said.

“I’m going to enjoy not having to train and not having to play netball first and foremost. I’m excited to become a teacher, excited to move in with my partner on the Yorke Peninsula and just live the country lifestyle and go back to that.

“I had always grown up dreaming to be one of those (Thunderbirds) girls and being out in a pink dress so and to have done that for the last 10 years is pretty remarkable in the fact that dream did come true and I’m just so grateful for it.”