The people behind Candice Bull’s 400 netball games for Portarlington
Candice Bull jokes her ‘ACLs are hanging on by a thread’, but they haven’t yet failed the goaler ahead of game 400 for Portarlington. She opens up on the key moments, and people behind her career.
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Candice Bull has racked up hundreds of matches and sunk thousands of goals – but it’s her next game which is set to bring with it the nerves.
The goal shooter will reach 400 games for her beloved Portarlington on Saturday, but that’s not including the numerous games she played for other teams, from Leopold to the Geelong Flyers in the state league.
Bringing up the milestone in B-grade against Anglesea, it’s a “must-win” in the context of keeping Bull’s team’s finals hopes alive – but also in capping the veteran’s milestone in style in front of friends and family.
“Back in the day, there was no real records so for me, there’s been no 50th or 100th and all that kind of stuff,” Bull said.
“This is like a really big deal, so I think it kind of hits home a little bit more.”
It was leading into the Demons’ 150-year celebrations last year the club pieced together its history, including player records, with Bull first starting her A-grade career back as a 15-year-old.
Now 41, the mother-of-three returned to the fold at Portarlington last year after a two-year stint at Leopold with daughter Marlee, getting the call-up back up to A-grade immediately.
“Playing A grade last year was a big test for the body … I guess my height had a lot to do with it,” she said.
“They kind of chucked me in there last year, but this year I was very determined to be playing just that little bit lower.”
Family ties Bull to Dees
Bull’s family has long bled red and blue.
From her grandfather Stewart Renfrey, the Dees’ 1953 premiership coach and former president, to mother Robyn and aunty Jo – both premiership netballers – and uncle Gary Renfrey, a two-time club best and fairest and league best and fairest, all have made significant contributions throughout the Demons’ history.
For Bull, following in her mum’s footsteps was only natural, and while Robyn’s premiership resume – three flags including one as captain/coach – might have alluded her daughter, it was last year’s life membership for Portarlington which holds some extra significance for Bull.
“My mum won flags and is a life member and league member, so the ambition as a kid was always to be as good as mum one day,” she said.
“Once my A-grade dreams went the older I got, getting that life membership was really special and something I could share with her and my aunty and grandfather.”
For Bull, there has been three significant highlights during her time spent on Portarlington’s courts.
First was in 2008, when Bull took home her first league ‘hot shots’ award in a major personal achievement.
Then there was an A-grade grand final appearance, despite the Dees and Bull going down to a powerhouse Barwon Heads, while third was lining up alongside daughter Marlee in B-grade this season, the teenager extending the family’s club history another generation.
As for how long Bull – who also coaches C-grade and under-19s this year – can see a place on court for herself, the 2026 season is in her sights while subscribing to the ethos: “keep playing until your body says stop”.
“That’s pretty much what I’ve done, I’ve got bad knees, bad ankles, but they haven’t really failed me yet so I’ll try keep going until the body says it’s time,” she said.
Bad knees and a stint down back
Bull counts herself lucky in avoiding serious injuries over the years.
But it was in a training session when a then 12-year-old Bull suffered her first major injury – a right partial ACL tear – which forced her into a knee brace.
“Due to me still growing, they couldn’t really do anything about it so I had to wear this brace right at the top of my hip all the way down to my ankle,” Bull recalled.
“I didn’t really do the proper rehabilitation for that – I’d just started high school and was on the third level but (it) was really hard to lob up to level three and go to all my classes – so I’d used to take it off at school and just wear it around home.
“It’s probably why the ACL’s never really healed properly.”
Bull joked her ACLs are “hanging on by a thread”, though she also puts it down to the “wear and tear” of decades of playing – sometimes up to seven days a week – while many a rolled ankle has been part and parcel of her netball career.
Though known for her exploits as a goal shooter, a mid-career swing into defence followed after some choice words from Bull’s former state coach Terry Corry.
“(He said) it’s up to the goaler to win, so that kind of put me off goal anymore and I went into defence and played that for probably five-six years,” she said.
“Then the knees gave way and I was like, gotta head back into goaling where it’s not so heavy on them.”
Armed with an understanding of how rival goalers structured up, Bull said she used her knowledge to her benefit in goal keeper – though sometimes for better or worse.
“I was a floater – I got a lot of fun out of picking off the passes (rather) than sticking on tight which was probably my downfall in most things – I’d leave my goalers alone all the time,” she said with the laugh.
Netball legend’s helping hand
Alongside mum Robyn and aunty Jo, there is another person Bull points to as playing a central role in shaping her as the player she is on court – Shirley Fagan.
The Dees’ 1991 and 1992 premiership coach was Bull’s coach at Flyers and the Kardinia Netball Association, while she also followed Fagan to Newcomb for a brief stint as a junior when Portarlington’s netball ranks went into a brief recess in the late 1990s, before returning to the Dees.
“She was one of those coaches who could see something and pushed me real hard to get the potential she may have saw,” Bull said.
“She was definitely a huge influence on my netball – and still is.
“She’s one of those people who kept me in the sport.”
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Originally published as The people behind Candice Bull’s 400 netball games for Portarlington
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