ANZ Championship 2016: NSW Swifts shooter Caitlin Thwaites has no regrets in missing Olympic shot

SHE could have been pushing for an Olympic spot in Rio but instead Caitlin Thwaites will be shooting for success with the NSW Swifts.

Sydney Swifts Star Caitlin Thwaites

SHE could have been pushing for an Olympic spot in Rio but instead Caitlin Thwaites will be shooting for success with the NSW Swifts.

A decision to drop indoor and beach volleyball from her sporting repertoire has been netball’s gain with Thwaites now one of the country’s leading shooters.

And while an Olympic medal in Brazil is now out of her reach (her old playing mates Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy are considered Australia’s top hopes of success in Rio) the 188cm Thwaites has aspirations of making a big impact with the NSW Swifts.

END OF THE ROAD: Clouds hang over ANZ Champs

Thwaites made the national volleyball team at age 16 but detoured from this path at 18 due to a funding cut to the volleyball program.

“Netball came knocking at my door,” said Thwaites who played both indoor and beach volleyball, as well as netball during her teens.

But it took the powerhouse shooter until she was 25 — almost 10 years after she made the Australian volleyball team — to become a fully fledged Diamond.

“I think volleyball came a little more naturally to me,” said Thwaites who earned her first Diamonds cap in 2012.

“But I don’t regret it (choosing netball) at all. I have loved every second of it.”

And the older she gets the better Thwaites, 29, is performing with the Sydney player last year part of a shooting combination that scored the most goals in ANZ Championship history.

She also finished as the fourth most prolific individual shooter in the league with an astounding career-best 506 goal from 574 attempts at 88.2 per cent — the highest strike rate of any of the league’s top seven shooters.

And in an ominous warning to ANZ championship rivals this season Thwaites believes she still has plenty to give to netball.

The Swifts open their season against the Vixens, whom they defeated with a record-setting win in May last year. Pic: Brett Costello

“I still feel I have more to achieve in netball,” said Thwaites, part of the Diamonds’ Commonwealth Games and world championship-winning teams.

Thwaites said despite five new faces in the squad that went within a goal of winning the ANZ Championship a year ago, the NSW Swifts have the potential to go all the way this season.

“There’s a great feel in the team,” she said.

The Swifts’ first game of the ANZ championship is against the Melbourne Vixens on Sunday, April 3 in Sydney.