Super Netball 2022: Firebirds hand Donnell Wallam late chance to earn contract at pre-season tournament
Donnell Wallam has a great chance to become just the second Indigenous player in Super Netball if she can make the most of a big opportunity handed to her by the Firebirds this weekend.
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Exciting shooter Donnell Wallam will join the Queensland Firebirds at the pre-season Team Girls Cup this weekend as she continues to push for a Super Netball spot.
Plenty of buzz surrounds the future of the West Australian product, who was set to take up a training partner position with West Coast Fever this season before receiving an offer to train with the Firebirds.
Wallam, 28, will give the Firebirds outstanding cover in the goal circle, with the Firebirds well aware of the impact Covid and injuries have had on teams’ lists over the past two seasons.
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The Noongar woman will become just the second Indigenous player in the league if she hits the court, and in linking with the Firebirds will join Jemma Mi Mi who has for several seasons been the only First Nations representative.
Firebirds head coach Megan Anderson invited Wallam into the Firebirds camp last month and the former Leeds Rhinos Super League shooter has not disappointed, leading to an opportunity in this week’s pre-season competition in Melbourne.
Wallam was initially offered a position as a training partner at the Fever, where she was shadowing Jamaican Jhaniele Fowler, the four-time Super Netball player of the year widely regarded the best goaler in the world.
Fever coach Dan Ryan, who was also Wallam’s mentor at Leeds and expected to draft her into the West Coast squad when he was appointed last year, told Perth radio station 6PR he and the club “support and understand” Wallam’s decision to move on.
“We had every intention of having Donnell in our environment and fortunately for her very late in the piece, a temporary replacement player opportunity has presented itself on the east coast,” Ryan said.
“She’s decided to take that opportunity and try to fast track and pursue her career with some court time in Super Netball, which we support and understand.
“As a WA athlete we’re keen to see her progress and develop.”
Firebirds’ Covid drama highlights Super Netball dilemma
The Queensland Firebirds’ pre-season Super Netball preparations have taken a hit after more than a dozen players and officials tested positive to Covid, forcing the club to postpone its clashes against Collingwood in Mackay.
The club had initially hoped to complete the matches with a reduced roster but as more players returned positive tests, the decision was made to postpone the games until March, with those affected completing mandatory isolation.
The outbreak comes on the heels of multiple Covid positives at rugby’s Queensland Reds and NRL club the Brisbane Broncos, which have disrupted pre-season preparations as the Covid’s Omicron wave reaches its peak in the state’s southeast.
An ongoing Covid wave will hit Super Netball, in particular, hard, with clubs and the league rejecting the option of rookie contracts as they worked through the recent collective player agreement talks.
Teams have contracted squads of just 10 players - plus up to six training partners, part-timers on $5000 honorariums and with seven players on the court at any one time, any outbreak will hit hard.
The league though, it determined to deliver a home-and-away season for the first time in three years and will need to be as agile in its response to spot Covid outbreaks, as it was in the past two years to be able to deliver full Super Netball seasons.
Firebirds general manager Demelza Fellowes aid the call was made with the health and safety of players, staff and Mackay community the priority.
“We tried everything we could to keep things on track, however, we have succumbed to the mini outbreak,” Fellowes said.
“Our coach Megan (Anderson) and the squad have been working super hard and they were really excited to hit the court in Mackay and meet our purple family up there.”
ENGLISH STAR ‘HONOURED’ TO TAKE FLIGHT WITH FIREBIRDS
Eboni Usoro-Brown wasn’t actively seeking a Super Netball contract.
But when the Queensland Firebirds came calling, the opportunity to become the only new import in the world’s best league was too good to turn down for a player determined to be part of England’s Commonwealth Games title defence.
Usoro-Brown was the last player signed in the Super Netball contracting period last year, the goalkeeper joining a Firebirds outfit that had already lost a pair of rising defensive stars and missed snaring the big-name international they had initially targeted.
But the Firebirds look to have found a perfect fit.
Usoro-Brown, who turned 34 on February 4, was recalled to the England side last year following a stellar season in the English Super League and was part of the Roses team that played out a round-game draw and thrilling final against the Diamonds at the recent Quad Series in London.
A mother to one-year-old Savannah, Usoro-Brown watched from afar last year as Kim Ravaillion (mum to almost two-year-old Georgie) and Gretel Bueta (mum of Bobby, 13 months) made successful returns for the Firebirds, quickly getting back to their best form.
“I wasn’t really looking (for a Super Netball opportunity) at all in one sense. For me, last season was really successful,” Usoro-Brown said.
“I had my daughter Savannah in August of 2020 and in amongst the Covid restrictions, we didn’t know if the Super League was going to go ahead (last year).
“To get back and play under those conditions and get to the grand final with Bath was testament to the journey that I’d had from being post-partum to coming back into elite sport.
“I was just really honoured and humbled when I got the call from the Firebirds saying we’ve got a space and would you like to come and play over here.”
Usoro-Brown has played in Australia before, turning out for West Coast Fever (2012-14) and Adelaide Thunderbirds (2014-15) in the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship era.
“So given that the Commonwealth Games is fast approaching and just wanting to continue to challenge myself, the opportunity to play in the best league in the world was one that I really had to consider,” she said.
The logistical challenges are certainly bigger than last time she was in the country.
Usoro-Brown not only has a toddler, but in England, was juggling playing duties with work as a solicitor and has a husband who is in the air force.
“For me, it was first asking my husband what he thought about it … he’s in the Royal Air Force, so to take some leave from there was going to be a bit challenging for this period of time,” she said.
John-King Usoro-Brown will arrive in Australia in a fortnight to visit his family and head out here again during the season, while the defender’s mother Pauline Beckford has made the trip to Brisbane for the season to help out.
Hence the attraction of the Firebirds, where not only teammates Ravaillion and Bueta are mums but coach Megan Anderson and her assistant Clare Ferguson.
“I think that was one of the biggest drawcards for me, in terms of having a team and a coach who will understand where I’m coming from,” Usoro-Brown said.
“Also, the likes of Kim Ravaillion and Gretel (Bueta), who are displaying great form and displaying that the program supports them to come back and be able to have the performances that they had last season, was something that really attracted me to the club.
“It just seems like a real family environment, there’s a really good culture here and I really want to contribute.
“I’m humbled and ready to be a part of it.”
Usoro-Brown has already thrown herself into training with the Firebirds despite having been in the country less than a week and knows she will have to be at her best to compete in this league.
“Everyone’s fitter, faster, hungrier (than the last time I played in Australia) and the competition is as high and as good as it’s ever been,” she said.
“That was one of the main attractions for me to challenge myself as an elite athlete — you don’t really get those opportunities to be better than you were yesterday very often and that’s the environment that’s been created here in Australia.
“The league’s definitely come on in leaps and bounds and I’m just hoping this year, given that we’ve kind of ridden the wave of Covid, we can have the home and away games and play in front of fans and have the spectacle and the intense atmosphere to add to the experience.”
Usoro-Brown and the Firebirds will officially start their campaign at the pre-season Team Girls Cup in Melbourne from February 25-27.
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NEW FIREBIRDS CAPTAIN PUSHING FOR DIAMONDS RECALL
Kim Ravaillion will complete her Firebirds homecoming by being announced captain of the Super Netball Club as she looks to push her case for inclusion in the Diamonds’ team for the Commonwealth Games.
Ravaillion played for the Firebirds from 2013-16 while a fixture in the Australian team, before heading to Collingwood for the start of Super Netball in 2017.
After a stint with the Magpies and a year off in 2020 during which she gave birth to a daughter, Georgie, with partner Adam Treloar, Ravaillion returned to the Firebirds last season in a move she described as a homecoming.
While part of the leadership group last year, Ravaillion did not have the “C” beside her name but Gabi Simpson’s decision to step away from the captaincy led to the 28-year-old being installed by her peers and the Firebirds coaching and high performance staff.
“I think everything just falls into place,” Ravaillion said.
“It was very nice to hear that the girls wanted me in that position and I was more than ready to put my hand up and give it a crack.
“The club’s always felt like my family and my home and it’s nice being back in this environment and being myself and having that confidence within the group.”
Fellow midcourter Lara Dunkley will join Ravaillion in the leadership team after being named vice-captain, while Simpson remains a respected voice and England goalkeeper Eboni Usoro-Brown will add plenty of experience to the defensive end.
“I may be the captain but there’s so many other great leaders in our team that have a very powerful voice as well and it takes the pressure off me a bit because I get to listen to them and it’s great for the team to have more voices,” Ravaillion said.
A surprise omission from the Diamonds squad last year despite being named the best centre in the Super Netball competition, Ravaillion has not given up hope of pushing her way into the Australian team for the Commonwealth Games, starting in July.
“It would be amazing,” she said. “I would love to represent Australia again and I will just keep on doing what I’m doing and try and play the best netball I can.
“At the end of the day, I just want to win for the Firebirds and if I can do that, then I’m playing well. Hopefully Stacey (Diamonds coach Stacey Marinkovich) sees something in me and gives me a chance or an opportunity.”
In Ravaillion’s favour is her incredible combination with Firebirds and Diamonds goaler Gretel Bueta, who was named player of the tournament in Australia’s recent Quad Series win.
“We’re only just getting started,” Ravaillion said of the pair, who both returned to Super Netball as new mums last year.
“The fact that I get to play with her again is only going to build our combination even more.
“She’s the fittest she’s ever been and so am I and it’s just more fun playing with Gretel because you never know what to expect.”
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