The big moves that transformed these players from part-timers to Super Netball stars
Unwilling to give up on their Super Netball dreams, these players grabbed their opportunity to join the best league in the world – but they had to move around the country to seize their chance.
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They’re the Aussie talents who have gone the extra mile to be a part of the best netball competition in the world.
With just 80 full-time Super Netball contracts available around the league, talented players won’t always get an opportunity at their local club.
Even if they do, there’s a good chance rising stars could be stuck on the bench, or filling training partner positions.
So can making a move interstate, or even across town in some cases, provide a career-changing opportunity?
The success of Swifts defensive midcourter Sharni Lambden this season – a former Vixens training partner thrown a career lifeline by Briony Akle in the off-season – got us thinking.
Who are the league’s fearless travellers?
We’ve picked every club’s travelling talents – the players who made the move to further their Super Netball careers and are thriving in their new environments.
The list ignores imports – many of whom have moved across the world for their Super Netball chance – and one club is not included.
Apart from imports Jo Harten, the injured Jodi-Ann Ward and newly arrived replacement Casey Kopua, the Giants have a list made entirely from NSW pathway players – homegrown talents who have transitioned to the best league in the world supported by veteran coach Julie Fitzgerald and key senior players.
The Vixens also have a mandated 70 per cent local rule but also have players who have moved to the club to seize their opportunity.
MATILDA GARRETT (Adelaide Thunderbirds)
The Melbourne-born circle defender was left looking for a new home after the demise of the Magpies and her arrival at the Adelaide Thunderbirds has seen her career take off. Garrett has since become a key plank at goal defence in what has been regarded as the best defensive unit in the competition alongside Jamaican pair Shamera Sterling-Humphrey – now taking a break from the game ahead of the arrival of her first child – and Latanya Wilson on the Thunderbirds’ path to back-to-back premierships in the past two years. The 26-year-old’s form with the T-Birds earned her a Diamonds debut in 2023 and she was again selected in the national squad for 2024-25.
KIERA AUSTIN (Melbourne Vixens)
Austin has taken her game to another level since moving to the Melbourne Vixens for the 2022 Super Netball season.
After injuring her anterior cruciate ligament and missing the 2021 season, Austin looked for a new home after Sophie Dwyer established herself in the Giants’ line-up during her injury absence.
The goal attack has since become a Diamonds’ regular and last year won the Sharelle McMahon Medal as the Vixens’ most valuable player.
The 27-year-old sharpshooter has formed a dominant combination with fellow Diamond Sophie Garbin and is the fourth-ranked player in the league for super shots.
SHARNI LAMBDEN (NSW Swifts)
Lambden is perhaps the poster girl for the big move. A Vixens training partner for three years and with the Collingwood squad before that, Lambden made her Super Netball debut in 2022, with a single game for the Vixens. She had to wait until 2024, ironically when she had taken a step back from the professional pathway, working full-time and playing in the Victorian Netball League for Casey Demons, to get another call-up, playing another four matches, in the navy dress.
Those efforts, including two full games, in place of injured Vixens midcourter Kate Eddy, were enough to convince Swifts coach Briony Akle to pick up the phone in the off-season, with Lambden making the move to NSW after being offered a one-year contract. Even with the Swifts having added Silver Ferns goaler Grace Nweke to their list – Lambden’s Sydney roommate – the Victorian was the talk of the team by the end of the pre-season and her hard work has paid off, with the dogged wing defence earning a starting spot and often picking up tagging assignments on some of the best players in the league. Hitting the court as a full-time contract holder just before her 27th birthday, Lambden has showed that fighting for her dream has been worthwhile.
KIM BROWN (Melbourne Mavericks)
Brown (nee Jenner) has crossed from one corner of the country to the other to further her netball career, but she is revelling in her role with the league’s youngest franchise. Brown initially cut her teeth in a six-year stint at the Queensland Firebirds before making the decision to move to the Fever to step out of her “comfort zone”. But the move to the Fever, which only lasted for the 2023 season, left Brown searching for more court time, which she has found at the Mavericks. The 27-year-old has cemented her place as the team’s starting goal defence and the defensive hunter became the first Mavericks player to sign for a third season with the club.
ALICE TEAGUE-NEELD (West Coast Fever)
Once considered one of Victoria’s brightest young prospects at goal attack, Teague-Neeld’s move to Western Australia led to a reinvention which has seen her transform into one of the best midcourters in the league. After three seasons at the Vixens and then another two at the now defunct Magpies, Teague-Neeld made the move to the West Coast for the 2019 season, but it was an unexpected switch to wing attack a couple of years into her tenure at the Fever which has seen Teague-Neeld’s career flourish. She has since made the position her own and sits second in the league for goal assists and centre pass receives behind Diamonds’ captain Liz Watson. The 29-year-old has the job of delivering supply to the league’s dominant goal shooter – Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard – and does it with aplomb.
LEESA MI MI (Sunshine Coast Lightning)
One of the shorter journeys in the list, with Queensland product Mi Mi heading up the Bruce Highway to the Sunshine Coast after being offered only a one-year deal by the Queensland Firebirds following a successful replacement player stint in purple while a training partner at the club where her sister racked up more than 50 Super Netball games. The gamble has paid off in spades for the league’s only First Nations player, with Mi Mi not only a fixture in the Sunshine Coast starting side but playing alongside Diamonds captain Liz Watson in Lightning colours and acting like a sponge, learning from one of the best midcourters in the world every day.
One of the quickest players in the league, Mi Mi, in her second year at the Lightning, is helping push the club’s case as top four certainties and genuine premiership hopes as she establishes herself as one of Super Netball’s rising stars.
EMILY MOORE (Queensland Firebirds)
A NSW pathways player who trained with the Giants Academy, Moore received a call-up to trial with the Firebirds in 2023 with Gretel Bueta on maternity leave while pregnant with her second child. The former North Shore United player was on the cusp of retirement when the Firebirds opportunity came and after initially heading north on annual leave, she left her job and headed to Queensland when she won what was then a one-year full-time deal with the Birdies.
Having made the most of her chance – especially with her prowess from super shot range – Moore won a two-year extension and has been a key part of the Firebirds’ shooting circle since, working successfully with a range of partners including Donnell Wallam, Mary Cholhok, Tippah Dwan and now Abigail Latu-Meafou.
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