Commonwealth Games 2022: Australian netball Diamonds squad, Donnell Wallam’s bolter selection

Some may expect Super Netball rookie Donnell Wallam to be overwhelmed should she be picked for the Diamonds - Emma Greenwood explains why that won’t be the case.

Donnell Wallam has proven a revelation for the Firebirds this season. Picture: Getty

Donnell Wallam is set to cap a meteoric rise in the sport by being named as a bolter in the Diamonds squad when it is announced on Thursday night.

Wallam, who has starred in her first season of Super Netball after being drafted on to the Queensland Firebirds’ full-time list for the pregnant Romelda Aiken-George is almost certain to be among the 18 players named in coach Stacey Marinkovich’s squad for the Commonwealth Games.

The retirement of former Diamonds captain Caitlin Bassett has left the Diamonds without an experienced dominant holding shooter.

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Donnell Wallam has proven a revelation for the Firebirds this season. Picture: Getty

While Sophie Garbin made her debut at the Constellation Cup in 2020 and impressed when on court at the Quad Series, she had a slow start to the season with the Collingwood Magpies, with Wallam bursting into the spotlight.

At 28, Wallam is also unlikely to be overawed by the situation.

Having travelled overseas to compete in the UK Super League to get her initial chance and moving away from family and friends in Western Australia to chase a Super Netball contract, she has showed she has the maturity to quickly adapt to new situations and bring her A game.

A Noongar woman, Wallam became just the second Indigenous Super Netball player when she joined Jemma Mi Mi at the Firebirds and she will become only the third First Nations Diamond – after Marcia Ella-Duncan and Sharon Finnan-White – and first in more than 20 years, if she gets on court in the gold dress.

Gretel Bueta will be an automatic selection as the best goaler in the world. Picture: Getty

SHOOTERS

Garbin will be announced, with Marinkovich sure to retain all 15 members of the squad that delivered the Quad Series to Australia.

Wallam’s rise left a conundrum for the national coach though, who will have been forced to juggle shooters in the squad.

Does she retain young Giant Sophie Dwyer – who forced her way into the Quad Series squad after an outstanding Super Netball season following a serious injury to Kiera Austin last season – but did not make her Test debut on tour?

Or does she bring Austin in instead, with the goal attack having found form and confidence over the past three weeks with new club the Melbourne Vixens?

Every indication is that both will be there, with the toughest decision having to be made in the coming weeks ahead of the cut for the final Commonwealth Games squad.

Gretel Bueta, the Quad Series MVP and arguably the best goaler in the world at the moment, was an automatic selection, as were Sunshine Coast pair Steph Wood and Cara Koenen, who showed some timely form at the weekend in the Lightning’s upset of the then-unbeaten Vixens.

But Wallam brings something the Diamonds just don’t have currently.

At 193cm, she’s the tallest goaler in the squad and her ability to hold her position and trouble goalkeepers has been on display in the opening rounds of the season, where she’s already taken on an all-star representative cast and more than held her own.

Her coaches believe Wallam will not look out of place in the Australian Commonwealth Games team. Picture: Getty

COACHES BACK WALLAM

Marinkovich watched on at Brisbane’s Nissan Arena on Sunday when Wallam went head-to-head against Adelaide’s Shamera Sterling, the Jamaican international who is one of the best goalkeepers in the world.

While there were some wobbles, many of them came from the Firebirds’ feeders – which would not have helped Kim Ravaillion’s chances – rather than Wallam’s hands.

And while she had some issues in the third quarter when the Firebirds faded, she fought back strongly to lead her team to a crucial win and trouble Sterling.

Certainly, Firebirds coach Megan Anderson does not think she would be out of place in a Diamonds dress.

Anderson said Wallam had been confident in her ability to perform at Super Netball level coming into the Firebirds squad and that had more than proved to be true.

“She’s just proved it every single time she’s got an outlet, so for sure, I’d be taking her,” Anderson said.

“There’s no other athlete like her and she’s only going to improve.

“I think it’s a no-brainer.”

Opposition coaches have also raved about the West Australian product, with Vixens mentor Simone McKinnis singing her praises after her Super Netball debut and West Coast Fever mentor Dan Ryan, who coached Wallam at Super League club Leeds, knowing she was a star in waiting.

“She’s proving to be good enough to not only play at this level, but be a real thorn in the side of every team that she comes up against,” Ryan said.

“Expect to hear her name a lot more. I think she’s got a very bright future.”

Liz Watson will lead Australia’s Diamonds into the Commonwealth Games. Picture: Getty

DEFENDERS

While Marinkovich had the chance to name as many as 22 players in her extended squad, she and selectors have stuck to 18, with the possibility of adding others ahead of internationals at the end of the year following the Commonwealth Games.

Given the focus is on the Games squad, which eventually has to be whittled down to 12, there’s no need to add to the defensive unit that performed so well at the Quad Series.

That group already included debutant Sunday Aryang, who was in stellar form in combination with her Fever captain Courtney Bruce in wins over the Firebirds and Swifts last week.

Bruce, last season’s Liz Ellis Diamond winner, was always going to be a lock, as were Swifts pair Sarah Klau and Maddy Turner and the Vixens’ Jo Weston.

Plenty have staked a claim this Super Netball season. Vixens goalkeeper Emily Mannix has shown some outstanding form after off-season surgery, Giants young gun Tilly McDonell is a rising star and Ruby Bakewell-Doran has been outstanding for the Firebirds.

But none can push the incumbents out for Birmingham and are likely to be considered for the back end of the year.

The Giants’ Amy Parmenter has dominated Super Netball this season. Picture: Getty

MIDCOURTERS

Surely the toughest decisions of all for selectors given the outstanding depth in Australian netball.

The five players that headed to London helped win the Quad Series trophy but there’s plenty of pressure being applied from the Super Netball cohort.

Diamonds captain Liz Watson is a lock, as is Ash Brazill after her outstanding Quad Series form and ability to play across the court.

Paige Hadley’s form at the Quad Series was a revelation and Jamie-Lee Price and Kate Moloney don’t deserve to be forced out given their early-season efforts.

So who else deserves the nod if squad numbers are being kept down?

With three players whose main position is centre in the group already, does it make sense to add a Kim Ravaillion, Kelsey Browne or Maddy Proud to the group?

Selectors are unlikely to jump that way.

Instead, they will look at the versatility they already possess and compliment it.

While she can play centre and do a decent job at wing defence, Watson is the best wing attack in the world, so the focus if adding to the group is likely to have been on wing defence.

Marinkovich has a versatile defensive group and could run Aryang, Weston or Turner there if going with a team of talls.

But a player already in the wider Diamonds set-up and dominating at Super Netball level is Amy Parmenter.

Don’t be surprised to see the livewire Giant named on Thursday. Her presence would not only give Marinkovich another option at wing defence but allow her to shift Brazill to centre if injury or Covid hit the team during the Games.

Likely Diamonds squad – Goalers: Kiera Austin, Gretel Bueta, Sophie Dwyer, Sophie Garbin, Cara Koenen, Donnell Wallam, Steph Wood (vc); Midcourt: Ash Brazill, Paige Hadley, Amy Parmenter, Jamie-Lee Price, Kate Moloney, Liz Watson (capt); Defenders: Sunday Aryang, Courtney Bruce, Sarah Klau, Maddy Turner, Jo Weston.

Originally published as Commonwealth Games 2022: Australian netball Diamonds squad, Donnell Wallam’s bolter selection