Romelda Aiken George’s journey from Firebirds’ pregnant ‘risk’ to Swifts star and 200th club

Eight months ago, Romelda Aiken George was dumped by the Firebirds after 14 years. She was pregnant and deemed ‘a risk’. In a twist of fate, she’s set to face the old club for her 200th.

It’s the elephant in the room, so let’s get right to it.

How is Romelda Aiken George going to feel playing her 200th national league game against the team for which she played the first 197?

The Jamaican product, who entered the league in 2008, paving the way for the influx of Sunshine Girls to come, may have spent 15 years in the purple garb of the Queensland Firebirds.

But when she becomes just the 12th player in national league history to rack up 200 games on Saturday, she will do so in the colours of the Swifts - the club she caused such heartache in 2015 and 2016 as she led the Firebirds’ charge to consecutive narrow grand final wins over their NSW rivals.

Then and now: Romelda Aiken was a raw-boned 19-year-old when she arrived at the Firebirds and will play her 200th game as a wife and mother in the NSW Swifts strip.

In a massive irony - or perhaps savvy planning by those doing the draw once her move was known - Aiken George will bring up the milestone against the Firebirds, who are desperate to notch a first win of the season but should also be celebrating the efforts of a wonderful player.

Aiken may have struggled at first to adapt to her new environment but became a fan favourite and sporting celebrity in Brisbane after joining the Queensland Firebirds.

After starring for Jamaica at the 2007 World Cup, Aiken - the George bit would come more than a decade later after she married former NBL player Daniel George - headed to Australia to join the Firebirds in the newly formed ANZ Championship, the trans-Tasman competition between the netball powers’ best provincial sides.

Former Diamonds captain and Firebirds coach Vicki Wilson had spotted the then-raw boned teen during Jamaica’s tour of Australia ahead of the World Cup and was wowed by her aerial ability.

“Some of the high ball she was able to take - and she was playing on Liz Ellis - she was turning Lizzy inside out,” Wilson said.

“The conversation was around, ‘this kid is really good’. By the time it got to Auckland (and hte World Cup), the conversation got to her coming over.

“It was such a huge step for her coming to Queensland and being the first international to do it she had to be really brave to step into the unknown.

“I don’t think anyone would have dreamt she would be notching up her 200th game.

“It’s a testeament not only to her passion for the game and her great skillset but the support she had around her all the way through and the many friends she’s made along the way.”

Romelda Aiken in the early days of joining the Firebirds.

The 196cm shooter was the league MVP in 2008 and again in 2009 even while struggling to fit in with culture shock and homesickness so much she would cry herself to sleep in her new environment in Queensland.

Wilson said few would have backed Aiken George to make it to 200 games at that stage, with most, including the player herself, believing she wouldn’t make it past the first year.

“She was quiet but she was still funny,” Wilson said of the wicked sense of humour Aiken George has become known for.

“The first couple of weeks of training she spent a lot of time on the ground - not because she fell over but she sat down and was crying,” Wilson said.

“I have to take my hat off to the Firebirds players and the management we had in the first two years and the role everyone played in supporting Romelda on and off the court.

“She’s blossomed into a wonderful, wonderful player.”

Romelda Aiken makes a snow angel after winning the ANZ Championship title with the Queensland Firebirds over New Zealand’s Northern Mystics in 2011. Pic: Peter Wallis

Somewhere along the way though, Aiken George became more and more comfortable, so much so that she became an Australian citizen in 2020.

A celebratory video on Facebook shows her Firebirds teammates lauding the woman known universally in netball circles as “Diddy” and the contribution she had made to the club.

That it all came to such a bitter end, with Aiken George alleging she was not offered a new contract for season 2023 after the Firebirds declared the new mum too much of a “risk” - something the club vehemently denies - was a disappointment for both Aiken George and the Purple Birdies fans that still adore the three-time premiership winner.

Thrown a career lifeline by the NSW Swifts, where she is officially a training partner but playing a significant role as goaler Sam Wallace continues her recovery from a knee reconstruction, Aiken George will join a stellar list of netballers in the 200 club, including just one other active player - Collingwood’s Geva Mentor.

The only two active players in the 200 club - Romelda Aiken and Geva Mentor go head-to-head playing for the Firebirds and Adelaide Thunderbirds in 2008.

The honour will come against the Firebirds but Aiken George doesn’t want to give much thought to her opponents.

“I think it’s just another game. I’m trying not to think about it, or put any power behind it,” Aiken George said of lining up against her old club.

“I just want to go out there and focus on what we are now.

“Obviously it’s a pretty big deal but I don’t want it to be a pretty big deal.

“A win would be nice and a championship is what we’re after, so when we get all of that, then we can talk about the amazing Swifts.”

Aiken George talked before the season about being “better not bitter”.

She and daughter Gianna, now eight months old, have moved to Sydney, away from George, to take on this opportunity with the Swifts.

It was a massive move after she rejected what she saw as an insulting offer from the Firebirds to be a training partner at the club after they opted to retain Diamonds goaler Donnell Wallam - the young gun who stepped in last season in Aiken George’s absence.

Having hit the court with her new club though - does the Firebirds split still burn, or has even just a few months apart started to heal wounds?

The 34-year-old felt she was kicked to the kerb by the Firebirds.

But she’s not going over old ground again.

“I don’t worry about it anymore,” she said.

“It is what it is. It’s water under the bridge and I wish them all the best and we’re moving on from that.”

Romelda Aiken George will line up in her 200th match on Saturday when the NSW Swifts take on the Firebirds in Sydney. Photo: Getty Images

Certainly, Aiken George is grateful for the opportunity that came from the Swifts, believing she would have to at least wait until the contracting period for the 2024 season started to get picked up again by a Super Netball franchise, or, worst case, fall agonisingly short of the 200-game mark.

But she is also proud that the self-confessed skinny kid who wanted to pack her Australian odyssey in almost as soon as she arrived in the country, has stuck it out for so long and become an inspiration for both local players coming through and the raft of Jamaican players who are now making the Sunshine Girls one of the strongest teams in world netball.

“It takes a lot of commitment and drive to be able to wake up every day and think about netball and each pre-season, see what can you bring different,” she said.

“To be able to have that opportunity to keep challenging yourself and your teammates believing in you as a person and as an athlete.

“Every year you keep loving the sport and you want to grow with the game as well as be out there on court. It’s great to be amongst some of the best players to reach such a huge milestone and I’m really hoping we get a win.”

For the kid who grew up in May Pen, near Montego Bay with a poster of famed Aussie shooter Sharelle McMahon on her wall, to join the former Melbourne and Diamonds player in the 200 club is surreal.

“To be among such prestige players, like come on, that’s a pretty big thing,” she said.

Gianna’s cooing can be heard in the background as Aiken reminisces, no longer the shy, reserved girl that arrived in Australia more than a decade-and-a-half ago but a league veteran who has made a significant mark on the game in the best league in the world.

With Wallace continuing to make strides in her recovery, Aiken George does not know how long her season will last and is savouring every minute.

“I think for me, a change was good,” she said.

“It’s very much reignited the passion and just to be back out on court is so exciting.

“(Now), it’s just being in the moment. Wherever I end up, just to be able to get back out on court is a big win for me.”