Pitched battle for Super Netball’s Queensland supremacy as former Firebirds bolster Lightning side
When the Firebirds line up against the Lightning in the Battle of the Bruce, many of their opponents will be familiar faces after a surge in players moving from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast in recent years.
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Sunshine Coast Lightning shooter Reilley Batcheldor says all bets are off once players take the court in the Queensland derby, as close friendships go on hold for 60 minutes with bragging rights on the line.
Batcheldor is one of six players in the Lightning full-time squad to have come through the Firebirds system who are now plying their trade up the Bruce Highway.
A training partner in Brisbane in 2021 before signing with the Lightning in 2022, Batcheldor and the rest of the Lightning squad are close with most of the Firebirds players.
“We have a lot of friendly fire,” she said of the Battle of the Bruce matches.
“I’d say we’re all friends off the court, but as soon as you step over that white line, it’s game faces and the battle’s on.”
Batcheldor’s shooting circle partner and foundation Lightning player Steph Wood (now Fretwell) had a short stint at Firebirds in 2012, although she did not play an ANZ Championship match, eventually making her national league debut in 2014 for the Swifts.
Wood, Tara Hinchliffe (2018-21) and Mahalia Cassidy (2016-20) are among the senior players to have moved across but in recent years, there’s been a drain of emerging talent moving northwards, with many of Queensland’s most promising players ending up on the Coast.
Former Firebirds training partners Leesa Mi Mi (2023), Ash Ervin (2023) and Batcheldor, as well as Charlie Bell, a former Firebirds training partner now playing in New Zealand, who replaced Batcheldor at the Lightning in 2023 when she was recovering from an ACL injury, have all ended up on the Sunshine Coast after starting their careers at Queensland’s first national league club.
It’s something that should add spice to a battle between the northern clubs, especially with the Lightning vowing earlier this year to shake off the perception they were the nicest team in the competition.
“We always love the Battle of the Bruce and the Birdies always bring their best against us,” Batcheldor said.
The goaler has had an outstanding season in 2025, earning her first spot in the starting seven in round six when Diamond Cara Koenen was battling a foot injury, playing a full 60 minutes and scoring 50 points to showing her value as a genuine contributor to what is already one of the most potent attacks in the competition.
“I think 2025 has been a great year for me,” Batcheldor said.
“I’ve had a lot more court time than I have in the past, and I think each game I’m learning more and more, and I’ve been able to put out some good performances.”
Stopping Batcheldor, Koenen and Wood will be the job of a Firebirds defence including young gun Isabelle Shearer.
The Rockhampton product said she was looking forward to playing in front of a full house at Nissan Arena, where the Firebirds would attempt to reverse the result of the first Queensland derby this season, a 14-point Lightning win that started the Birdies’ run of six consecutive losses.
“Obviously round three didn’t go the way that we wanted it to, so we’ve been looking at what went wrong, what we can do better and looking at how we’ve been improving over the course of the following games,” Shearer said.
“And we really want to put out a good performance, against Lightning this week, just consolidating each little thing that we work on into a 60-minute performance.”
Shearer, who wants to emulate the feats of her idol, former Firebirds and Australian captain and goalkeeper Laura Geitz, is desperate to help return the Purple Birdies to their former glory by winning a premiership in Brisbane.
That’s unlikely to happen this season even though the Firebirds are not yet mathematically out of the finals race, with their northern neighbours – currently in third place on the ladder – much more likely to lift the trophy.
But as one of the youngest players in the side, if she can help stop the drain of talent to the north and spark the dreams other young stars to play for the Firebirds, she could be a prime mover in returning them to the big dance.
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