NSW Swifts netballer Maddy Turner making a mark in ANZ Championship netball league

SHE came into her first ANZ Championship season as a raw, overwhelmed unknown but Maddy Turner will end it with one almighty target on her back.

Maddy Turner takes on Gretel Tippett of the Firebirds earlier this season.

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SHE came into her first ANZ Championship season as a raw, overwhelmed unknown but Maddy Turner will end it with one almighty target on her back.

A defensive apprentice to the masterful Sharni Layton, one of its quietest but brightest talents.in the league has this season forged a formidable combination with one of its most popular and loudest.

“We’re a pretty good foil for each other but sometimes it can get a bit close for comforts,’’ Turner laughed of Layton’s constant booming commentary during a game.

The NSW Swifts formidable defensive team of Sharni Layton and Maddy Turner.

Turner, expected to be high on the hit-list of scouts ahead of the new Australian-based netball league to replace the ANZ Championship in 2017, still has to pinch herself at times in disbelief at her extraordinary rise to success.

“It’s been crazy. I could never have imaged last year that I would start every game in my first season,’’ said the South Australian who relocated to Sydney for her netball career.

“I’ve just been so lucky to be surrounded by the best.’’

From competition debutant to Swifts starting seven regular, Turner will be a highly sought after signature ahead of the new league for teams with both a short and long-term game plan.

But right now the 20-year-old is following the lead of senior Swifts players and staying mum about her ambitions for 2017.

Maddy Turner takes on Gretel Tippett in the Swifts v Firebirds game.

“I’m more a week to week person, I just want to keep playing netball wherever. I love it,’’ said Turner, who shares a house with Silver Fern Laura Langman and shooter Steph Wood.

Turner and Layton have the tough task of diluting the potency of the competitions second most prolific shooter, Jamaican Romelda Aiken, when the Swifts play the Queensland Firebirds in Monday’s Australian Conference final in Brisbane.

Containing Aiken will be key to the Swifts success in a match where the winner will earn the right to host an ANZ championship semi-final.

The Firebirds hold the upper hand historically on the Swifts heading into Monday’s Australian Conference final in Brisbane.

The Queensland side have beaten the Swifts in every one of their previous 10 match-ups on home turf.

But the Swifts hold a slight edge in terms of ANZ Championship finals appearances, having made the cut six times to the Firebirds five.