Super Netball: Jo Weston reveals dream to play out her career with Vixens, ahead of 150th game

The Jo Weston who walked into her first Super Netball training session is totally different to the Vixens star about to play game No.150, but there’s one key goal left she wants to achieve.

It’s hard to imagine Jo Weston as a “scared” rookie netballer.

A fixture of the Melbourne Vixens for more than a decade, Diamonds’ stalwart and passionate advocate as the president of the Australian Netball Players’ Association, the star defender is one of the most accomplished players in the country – on and off the court.

A dual premiership player with the Vixens, Weston has 75 Test caps to her name and is a World Cup and Commonwealth Games-winning Diamond.

A commerce graduate, Weston is in the throes of completing a Master of Communication and has just released her first junior fiction book.

Jo Weston in action for the Melbourne Vixens. Picture: Getty Images

But as she reflects on her netball journey ahead of her 150th match, Weston admits it was a much different rookie who walked into the Vixens for the first time.

“I do remember coming in for my very first pre-season. Prior to that I had gone away on a trip to New Zealand the year before as an injury fill-in player,” Weston recalled.

“I’ve still got some photos from that and I think I was initially quite overwhelmed looking at all these other athletes that I had looked up to for so many years.

“And Simone (McKinnis) as the coach, I think I was a little bit scared of her when I first joined the team …. still a little bit scared of her!

“She was such an incredible player and she always has really high expectations, which is something I feel I have absorbed into my own training and how I like to work at things and really expect the best of myself.

“I am really fortunate to have a coach that has enabled me to have those sorts of standards because I think that is what has helped my career over the last few years.”

Jo Weston is approaching her 150th game. Picture: Getty Images

Weston is now a key pillar of the Vixens’ line-up, holding down the fort at goal defence, occasionally at wing defence and even made a cameo at goal keeper in round one.

While Weston said it was “surreal” to still be at the same club 150 games later, she wanted to play out her Super Netball career with the one club.

“My preference is to always try and be a one-club player,” Weston, 31, said.

“But I know that doesn’t always eventuate. So if circumstances changed and I wanted to keep playing and it wasn’t to be at the Vixens, that is something that I would think about.

“But at this stage I am hoping to be able to continue to play at the Vixens for as long as I want to play netball at the professional level.”

Jo Weston is president of the Australian Netball Players’ Association. Picture: Getty Images for Netball Australia

Equally important to Weston as her on-court pursuits has been her longstanding role with the Australian Netball Players’ Association and making sure the players get the pay and conditions they deserve.

Weston said it was critical netball remained competitive in what was now a packed sporting landscape for female athletes.

“I have always felt quite passionate and quite fortunate that others can think of me as an advocate for them,” Weston said.

“We’re just really trying to make sure that netball is in a really good place and the players are being factored into that equation as the sport progresses.

“We are really passionate about making sure we’ve got appropriate pay and appropriate contractual negotiations. The female sporting landscape is very competitive at the moment for talent and athletes that are coming up now almost have their pick of what they want to choose to pursue.

“So we want to make sure we are remaining competitive and hopefully we can continue that with Netball Australia.”

On court, Weston’s primary focus is helping the Vixens bounce back from a grand final loss last year – and a heavy 13-goal round one loss to their championship conqueror Adelaide.

Jo Weston has 75 Test caps for the Diamonds. Picture: Getty Images

“Losing last year in such a close game was really disappointing for us because it’s really hard to make a grand final,” Weston said.

“We worked really hard over the off-season and in all of our pre-season games to make sure that we’ve got that real depth across our squad.

“Last week I played goal defence, then wing defence, then (goal) keeper and then wing defence again.

“We are going to go back and look at a couple of things and for us it is really about keeping possession of the ball and not throwing it to hands and basic skill errors under the pressure.

“Hopefully being back at home at John Cain Arena in front of our incredible fans and members should hopefully get us over the line.”

Originally published as Super Netball: Jo Weston reveals dream to play out her career with Vixens, ahead of 150th game