The Super Netball clubs that could sign Australian Diamonds’ goaler Donnell Wallam next season
After a Code Sports investigation examined how Diamonds player Donnell Wallam ended up without a Super Netball contract for 2025, is there a club that could sign her next season?
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Her three-year stint in Super Netball marked her as one of the most exciting and prolific shooters of her generation, yet Donnell Wallam will not play in the Australian league this year, turning out instead in New Zealand’s ANZ Premiership for the Mystics.
But with the future of New Zealand’s league shrouded in mystery after Sky signed just a one-year deal for a reduced 2025 season, Wallam will again be a free agent at the end of the year.
Code Sports examines the shooting positions in each of the Super Netball teams to determine whether there’s a chance the six-Test Diamond could return to Super Netball next year.
With every player set to come off contract again at the end of September next year ahead of a new Collective Player Agreement, there is only room for a one-year- deal at most under current arrangements and only clubs with shooters off contract in 2025 would be able to consider her.
Queensland Firebirds
Wallam was axed by the Firebirds in 2024, with the club deciding not to renew her contract and signing Ugandan star Mary Cholhok to a two-year deal.
Tippah Dwan and Emily Moore will be off contract at the end of the season but both are goal attacks and with Cholhok in the holding shooter’s position, the club is not looking for another tall like Wallam - even if there was an appetite from either party to rebuild bridges.
Sunshine Coast Lightning
While Steph Fretwell and Reilley Batcheldor come off contract at the end of the season, both are primarily goal attacks, with Diamonds tall Cara Koenen tied up until the end of 2026.
There’s some speculation former Diamonds vice-captain Fretwell, who will be 34 by the start of next season, could be considering retirement, especially if the Lightning perform well, Batcheldor is a rising star who will almost certainly be re-signed by the club if she’s willing to stay.
NSW Swifts
The Swifts initially loomed as a possibility for Wallam for this season before confirming they had attracted Silver Ferns goaler Grace Nweke for 2025.
But with the 23-year-old having to give up her eligibility for the Kiwis to play this year and desperate to turn out at next year’s Commonwealth Games, she’s likely to head back across the ditch should the rules not change. If that happens, Wallam - who’s now playing for Nweke’s former club the Mystics - could do a straight swap and end up in a red dress.
Giants Netball
Veteran England goaler Jo Harten is off contract at the end of the season, presenting what could be an opening.
Harten, who could head into a coaching role at the club, has said she won’t consider her future until the end of the year but it’s unlikely there would be a place for Wallam given 188cm Matisse Letherbarrow, who started at the weekend in their round 1 loss to the Firebirds, has served a long apprenticeship and is ready to step up.
Melbourne Vixens
Kiera Austin was reportedly one of only two players to have signed with the Vixens until 2026 when the protracted pay war finally ended in late 2023, with Diamonds shooter Sophie Garbin and rising star Lily Graham both off contract.
It’s more than likely though that the club will look to open negotiations with the pair before the new signing window opens, locking them up for 2026.
Melbourne Mavericks
Just one player, defender Kim Brown, had extended to 2026 at the start of the Super Netball season, with the Mavericks having signed only two-year deals with its inaugural cohort when joining the competition ahead of last season.
That means Shimona Jok, Eleanor Cardwell and Sasha Glasgow are all off contract at the end of the season and there’s potential to look at a player like Wallam.
It’s hard to see them going past their inaugural MVP Jok, for 2026 though, in a move that would leave little room for another holding shooter like Wallam.
Adelaide Thunderbirds
Veteran Romelda Aiken-George signed on for another season in 2025 after a stellar showing last year that left her with grand final MVP honours.
Both she and fellow tall Lucy Austin are off contract this season, so there’s technically a potential space for a player like Wallam.
But South Australian product and Diamonds training squad member Austin is a lock at the club that has brought her through the pathway and while Aiken-George’s stellar career is closer to the end than the start, who’s to say she couldn’t go around again next year, perhaps in a reduced role as Austin steps up.
West Coast Fever
While there was speculation the board blocked the signing of Wallam as a replacement for Jamaican great Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard when she announced her pregnancy late last year, CEO Simone Hansen said: “West Coast Fever certainly has not ruled out recruiting Donnell in the future”.
Fowler-Nembhard, who has started training with the club again after tragically miscarrying in January, recently returned to training and will at some stage this season rejoin the full-time squad.
She is off contract at the end of the year and has not yet made comment about her plans for the future, but the Fever also have emerging talent Olivia Wilkinson signed until 2026.
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Originally published as The Super Netball clubs that could sign Australian Diamonds’ goaler Donnell Wallam next season
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