Super Netball finals: Captain Hannah Petty on Adelaide Thunderbirds’ rise

After years mired at the bottom of the ladder, Hannah Petty is about to embark on her first genuine crack at a Super Netball premiership with Adelaide — and she’ll do it with a host of local talent beside her.

Hannah Petty still remembers the days she made the six-hour journey from Wudinna on the Eyre Peninsula, to Adelaide to compete in the country championships and get to head to a Thunderbirds game to watch her heroes play.

A young Petty watched in wonder as players like Diamonds shooter Erin Bell and Jamaican international Carla Borrego plied their trade, helping the T-Birds enhance their reputation as one of the most successful and feared teams in the national league.

When the midcourter won her first contract with the team at 18 in the final year of the ANZ championship, she was in awe playing alongside Bell and the likes of dual premiership winner Emily Beaton.

And she expected to experience the success that they had as Thunderbirds.

Eight years on, Petty is still waiting.

Adelaide Thunderbirds leaders Hannah Petty with Shamera Sterling and Eleanor Cardwell.

In her first seven years in the league, the wing defence-centre had experienced a best finish of seventh place with the club.

There were seasons in which the T-Birds didn’t win a single game.

But on Saturday night, Petty, who has captained the team since midway through the 2020 season, will lead her team on to Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney to take on the NSW Swifts for a place in the Super Netball grand final.

“It definitely has been tough,” Petty said of Adelaide’s long wait to return to the finals.

“We have a really good history at the T-Birds of winning championships. Probably you’d want to win a premiership every year but I think through the losses, I have learned a lot about myself, about my teammates as well.

“I would have liked to win more games — I think there was years where we didn’t win a game at all — but at the same time, I was just happy to be a part of the club and then you wouldn’t change it.

“It’s a great moment now that we get to have our first taste of finals.”

Hannah Petty is dreaming of emulating her Thunderbirds heroes.

The Thunderbirds were pegged as potential finalists last season.

With Jamaican defenders Shamera Sterling and Latanya Wilson dominating the aerial battle in the circle and South African shooter Lenize Potgieter an experienced hand at the attack end, the T-Birds were in the four for much of the season before dropping out of contention in a tight battle for the finals.

This year, England international Eleanor Cardwell has come in for Potgieter and made a huge impact in her debut season.

But the T-Birds’ rise has not just been on the back of their ultra-competitive goaler.

Coach Tania Obst has been criticised at times for sticking with so much local talent but a group of South Australian young guns including Petty, Georgie Horjus, Lucy Austin, Maisie Nankivell and Tayla Williams is hitting its straps at the right time.

Maddy Proud and Hannah Petty vie for possession.

“Tania’s hand-picked us all for a reason and she stuck to her word that (the Thunderbirds) are developing younger players that are showing what they’re made of,” Petty said.

“And I think that’s a massive part of being successful. If you can get a group that’s played together and understands each other for a long period of time, then you are going to get success because the gel is what it’s all about.

“It’s so fun playing with girls that are from SA as well because I know how much history comes along with wearing a Thunderbirds dress and you know how proud they are to pull it on each week.”

The players are truly representative of the state as well. As well as the Wudinna wonder, Petty stands alongside Kangaroo Island’s Horjus, Mount Gambier’s Nankivell and Balaklava’s Williams, while young gun Austin is Adelaide born and bred.

No wonder Hannah Petty has been smiling this year.

“A lot of our players are country girls as well. So that’s even better to think that we’re representing the whole of SA as well as a few imports coming in,” Petty said.

“We love the community. We love getting out there and we will play for all of South Australia because we know how special it is to our club.”

It’s the experience and belief of the locals and the team as a whole that has made the difference for the T-Birds this season, Petty says.

“Last year was a frustrating end to the year,” she said.

“We knew we were good enough and we were just missing those final little end to the games that we needed but couldn’t pull together – and we learned a lot in those moments.

“Having experienced those losses and that frustration definitely put us in good stead for this year.

“This whole pre-season was really built on our belief as players and bringing our (individual) weapons each week but also us as a team.”

Hannah Petty is watched closely by Mahalia Cassidy.

Saturday night won’t be an easy experience for the Thunderbirds, who will face a crowd of more than 10,000 at Qudos Bank Arena, almost all of them barracking for a Swifts win and progression to the grand final, where the NSW club would attempt to win a third Super Netball title.

But Petty – who has battled injury this season and is content to be a role player adding experience and calm when she comes on – knows first hand how a premiership curse can be broken and doesn’t believe the T-Birds should be content just to be onlookers in the finals.

Brother Harry, a key defender for Melbourne in the AFL, was a member of the Demons’ side that broke their 57-year premiership drought in 2021.

“I got massive belief (from that),” said Petty, who was able to be with family in the stands in Western Australia to see her brother help the Demons win the flag.

“It was just the best moment ever. I can still picture the moment when he won the flag and all the all of us in the states were just in disbelief that he’d actually done it. We were super proud of him.”

Can Petty lead Adelaide to the holy grail?

It’s also something that Petty will try to learn from.

“That’s something that I have noticed during my netball career is looking over and asking questions of Harry about what they did and try to get experience and knowledge from their journey as well because I guess you could say they are kind of similar in the fact that it was 50-odd years since they’d won a premiership, not 10.

“We’ve both gone through some hard times to get to where we are and it’s just super exciting that we’re in finals and it means so much to each and every one of us that we could be the ones that break the drought.

“It makes all the hard work and the losses a little bit easier to swallow.”

Originally published as Super Netball finals: Captain Hannah Petty on Adelaide Thunderbirds’ rise