NSW Swifts’ Sharni Lambden opens up about her eight-year journey to Super Netball dream and her love of fishing
How Sharni Lambden went from being a training partner for the best part of a decade to securing herself a Super Netball contract and making an instant impact when she got the chance.
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She has been a midcourt revelation for the NSW Swifts this season, but the league’s avid angler Sharni Lambden admits there were times she had felt like giving up on her dream of reeling in a Super Netball contract.
The defensive midcourter with a “bit of mongrel” has earned a degree in patience as she battled on the fringe for eight years to land a spot on a Super Netball list – and she has not wasted her opportunity at the Swifts.
Lambden had spent the best part of the last decade chasing her dreams as a training partner in Victoria – firstly with the now defunct Magpies and then with the Melbourne Vixens.
The 26-year-old struggled to force her way onto a list as she sat behind the likes of fellow specialist wing defenders Ash Brazill at the Magpies and then Kate Eddy at the Vixens.
After reaching the point where she felt her game was “plateauing”, Lambden decided to take a step back from her role as a training partner last year and instead work full time, while keeping her hand in netball playing in the Victorian Netball League.
Lambden admitted there were times she had felt like walking away from her dream and her opportunity to land a Super Netball contract might never come, but ultimately believed her journey had made her a better player.
“We’re all human and there were definitely times where I wanted to give up and thought, ‘It’s probably never going to happen’,” Lambden said.
“But I think in the back of my mind, I’m not that person that would give up and I will strive and work hard for something that I want.
“I just had to learn to be patient and opportunity and time would come. There’s not that many contracts in Australia, there are only 80 contracts up for grabs and there are so many talented netballers out there and it’s just about having that opportunity.
“Every sportsperson who has ever been in a position like that would understand the feeling and there are a lot of mixed emotions.
“I definitely was frustrated, but I just kept my head held high and hoped an opportunity would come and it’s all about timing and all about luck.
“But I think my journey has shaped me to be a better athlete. It really pushed me to be better and it worked out in the long run and even though it has taken me a while I finally got there.”
Not only did Lambden secure her long-awaited Super Netball contract, but she has made an instant impact.
She has established herself as a regular starter at wing defence in a Swifts’ team which is a title contender and, until the last round against West Coast Fever, was undefeated.
Lambden has averaged almost 52 minutes a match across the opening nine rounds and has been widely regarded as one of the finds of the season.
“It’s something I have been chasing for the last eight years and it means the world to me,” Lambden said of her chance at the Swifts.
“To finally be rewarded to get the contract here, especially with a well-established, amazing club, I am super grateful.
“I honestly pinch myself every day. I always say, ‘I can’t believe I’m here playing for the Swifts’. It’s honestly such a dream come true and it’s been all about patience and resilience and I’m just super grateful to be here.
“I’m super happy that Bri (coach Briony Akle) and (assistant coach) Dylan (Nexhip) have so much faith in me and give me that bib each week and believe in me.”
The step back to go forward
Unsure where her netball future lay, Lambden, who originally made her Super Netball debut as a fill-in for the Vixens in 2022, decided to take a “step back” as training partner last year, instead opting to work full-time.
She continued to play for Casey Demons in the VNL, while she worked as a teacher’s aide for children with autism and ADHD.
“I was plateauing a bit. I had been in that spot for eight years, I was like, ‘I need to control this to make a decision about it’,” Lambden said.
“Netball just wasn’t on my path at the time. So I was like, ‘Let’s go down another path for maybe a year, or two and I might end up jumping back on that path’.
“I was just playing VNL and working full-time and trying to find myself outside of netball. I thought, ‘I’m going to take a step away and figure out who I am’.
“I absolutely loved working at the school. The staff were amazing, the kids were awesome and I am super grateful for them as well.
“It was a good learning curve outside of netball. I feel like I made the right decision stepping away and if netball was meant to be it was meant to be.”
It was when Lambden least expected it, an opportunity opened up.
Lambden was called up as an injury replacement player for Eddy and featured in a handful of games mid-season, which provided a springboard to her first contract.
“I ended up getting that opportunity at Vixens and I took it with two hands and it’s opened me up to where I am now with the Swifts,” Lambden said.
The unexpected offer
Lambden admits her phone may have gone flying when she got a message saying the Swifts had wanted to get in contact with her.
The contract window was quickly passing by and Lambden had feared – and was almost prepared for – the possibility she would emerge empty-handed again.
“It was definitely out of the blue,” Lambden said.
“The contracting period was almost done and obviously I really wanted to get a contract, but I was OK if I didn’t get anything because the last eight years I had been fighting for a spot.
“When I got a text saying the Swifts wanted to get in contact, I genuinely threw my phone. I was like, ‘No way, they’re joking. This can’t be real’.
“Then I had the chat with Briony and they offered me the contract on the spot.
“I was over the moon. There were a lot of mixed emotions, so much excitement. I cried happy tears, I was super happy.”
Lambden’s mid-season call-up from the Vixens had caught Akle’s eye.
“She said the opportunity I had been given with the Vixens last year – because we had a round game against them (Swifts) – she said that I really stood out to her,” Lambden said.
“She said, ‘You are someone that we need in our team’. Honestly, it felt good to hear.”
Asked to describe herself as a wing defender and the qualities which finally landed her a Super Netball contract – Lambden said there was a bit of “mongrel” in her.
“I think I am definitely good at being a tagging player,” Lambden said.
“I definitely can be a pest at times, (there’s) a bit of mongrel in me.
“There is a bit of fight and just my work ethic, I just keep going and going for that full 60 minutes. I feel like that is just a part of my game: covering and covering and making sure I put a lot of hard work out the front so then our back D can get all those glory intercepts.”
The big catch
When she is not being a “pest” to opposition attackers on court, Lambden is a keen fisher and loves nothing more than casting a line in the water in her downtime.
Introduced to fishing through her partner, Max, Lambden has grown to love the pastime, which she said gave her balance away from netball.
“Max loves his fishing and when I first met him, he took me out fishing and I kind of fell in love with it,” Lambden said.
“I just love getting out on the water, it’s really therapeutic and it’s something I can just enjoy outside of netball and really let my hair down.
“Sometimes netball can be quite demanding and you need to find something on the outside to balance that out.”
Before her move to Sydney, the couple’s favourite fishing spots were at the coastal town of Mallacoota in East Gippsland and Phillip Island.
Lambden reeled in her biggest catch at Mallacoota – a large school shark, which she eventually wore down like an opposition wing attack.
“It was massive,” Lambden said.
“It took me so long to get it in, but it was a lot of fun, the fight was good.”
The future
Lambden’s first Super Netball contract with the Swifts is just for one year, but she hopes she can remain a part of the club.
“I feel like I have found my home away from home,” Lambden said.
“I would love to stay here, it’s the best environment to be in. They’re the best group of girls, the best coaching staff and I just really love it here.”
First, the ladder-leading Swifts have a premiership to attack. And after waiting eight years for her Super Netball moment, that’s an opportunity Lambden is not taking lightly.
“Honestly, it would be insane,” Lambden said of the chance to chase this year’s crown.
“To think that is my first-year contract, in a different state and we’re on top of the ladder and we could hopefully get that premiership would be absolutely insane.”
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