Super Netball: Melbourne Vixens elevate star Kiera Austin to new role, Kate Moloney captains

The Melbourne Vixens have confirmed their team leaders for 2025 with a star goaler stepping up into a key role as the team aims to strike back from its grand final loss last year.

Melbourne Vixens’ “cool, calm and collected” goal attack Kiera Austin will back up her club MVP season with an elevation to the team’s vice-captaincy alongside long-time captain and Diamonds teammate Kate Moloney this season.

As the Vixens aim to hit back from last year’s Super Netball grand final loss to the Adelaide Thunderbirds, Austin will step into the leadership position for the first time in 2025.

Voted on by the Vixens players, coaches and support staff, midcourter Moloney will continue in her captaincy role for a ninth season.

Austin’s leadership elevation follows an impressive domestic and international season in 2024 when she claimed her first Sharelle McMahon Medal as the Vixens’ most valuable player.

Melbourne Vixens have named their leaders for 2025 Super Netball season with Kate Moloney again named captain and Kiera Austin stepping up as vice-captain. Pic: Benny Clarke.

The 27-year-old goaler takes over the vice-captaincy role from defender Emily Mannix, who is on maternity leave following the birth of her first child in January.

“With Emily Mannix being a mum for a little bit, they are very big shoes to fill,” said Austin, who joined the Vixens in 2022.

“This club has given me so much, it has given me a new lease on life with my netball and they have made me fall in love with the sport again.

“To be given the opportunity to give back to the club that has really given me so much makes me really excited and makes me feel very honoured.

“This is a nice step up to – not necessarily challenge myself – but to see what I’m capable of in this space.

“(Kate and I) have had a few chats here and there and I think she can see there is natural inkling for me to lead, but I am probably more of the quieter approach, I like to connect with people more than to open my lungs.”

The Vixens’ vocal on-court leader Kate Moloney will captain the team again in 2025. Picture: Getty Images

The Vixens’ vocal on-court leader, 32-year-old Moloney has captained or co-captained the team every year since 2017 and said she never took the role “for granted”.

Moloney felt the leadership styles of Austin and herself would complement each other.

“‘Kippa’ is really cool, calm and collected in everything that she does and I am probably more, how would I describe it, loud and passionate and in that aspect,” Moloney said.

“We do really work well together and that’s going to be something that is going to grow over the year.

“I have seen Kippa’s growth in that area over the last 12 months and she has really stepped up as a leader and the way that she goes about things is something that is really pivotal for our team.

“She hasn’t got a premiership, unfortunately for Kip, but she is so desperate (for one) and she knows that it takes all of us and the way that she works with the players around her to make them better as well as herself I think has been a huge growth.”

Last year’s Melbourne Vixens MVP, Kiera Austin, will step into the role of vice-captain for the first time in 2025. Picture: Getty Images

Austin said last year’s grand final loss had taken a toll, but the Vixens had turned their focus to striking back in this year’s campaign, which kicks off against the Thunderbirds in Adelaide on April 5.

“That game had a massive impact on us as a team and myself individually, I haven’t watched the game back,” Austin said.

“It is a game that will sit with me for a very long time to feel like we got so close to winning that premiership, it would have been my first ever premiership.

“It really took a toll on the team …. but 2025 is a new season, you have to move on quickly.

“We are still as hungry as ever to really go at them in round one and hit the ground running.”

Originally published as Super Netball: Melbourne Vixens elevate star Kiera Austin to new role, Kate Moloney captains