West Coast midcourter Kelsey Browne on her career lifeline with the Fever, Collingwood’s demise one year on and her netball future

Less than 24-hours after Kelsey Browne conceded she wouldn’t be suiting up for a Super Netball team in 2024, an out of the blue phone call from the Fever turned her world on its head. She shares her journey.

Kelsey Browne was “basically done and dusted”.

At the tail-end of a bruising year following the demise of the Collingwood netball team which left her without a club, Browne had come to terms with the fact she would not be pulling on a Super Netball dress for the 2024 season.

Addressing speculation about her future, the speedy mid-court ace had all but signed off from the game in an emotional goodbye to netball post – at least for the foreseeable future – on social media in late November.

Less than 24 hours later, the unexpected call came from West Coast Fever coach Dan Ryan offering her a career lifeline from the other side of the country.

“It was a pretty crazy turn of events,” Browne said.

“I ended up putting out a little post on social media, I was just over a lot of the speculation around what I was going to end up doing. I had started on a new career path (as an NBL sideline commentator) and I was really happy with what I was doing and I had also accepted the fact that my career had been amazing and I had loved every second of it. I was basically done and dusted and I was ready to move on and happy with my time (in netball).

“I put the post out on a Thursday night at 5pm and I got the phone call from Dan on the Friday morning, so it was a very strange 24 hours.

Kelsey Browne of the Fever in action against the Sunshine Coast Lightning. Picture: Getty Images

“After that, we spent a week going back and forth on whether it was the best decision for me and for Fever and whether it was going to be a fit that worked.

“Obviously Verity (Simmons) stepping away at the time and doing AFLW, they needed to find a senior player and someone that could slot into a role that they needed.

“I ended up moving (to Perth) two and a half weeks later.”

Midway through this year’s Super Netball season, there is no doubt the last-minute call-up from the Fever has been a great “fit” for both Browne and the league’s ladder leaders.

Browne’s move landed her at a fourth Super Netball club following her stints with Melbourne Vixens, Sunshine Coast Lighting and the now defunct Collingwood team across her career.

The dual Super Netball premiership player has slotted in seamlessly to the Fever midcourt, albeit in the slightly less familiar position of centre from where she made her name at wing attack.

“I did think the last place I thought I would move to would be Perth, but having been here for four months now, the girls, the club, everything about the place has just been a perfect fit for me and I feel very grateful and lucky that it has worked out the way that it did,” Browne said.

Kelsey Browne and Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard of the Fever react from the bench. Picture: Getty Images

“It’s obviously been a transition in positions for me, nine years playing in WA and a little bit across centre, but sort of transitioning fully across in that centre position as well as a completely new team.

“I genuinely have never loved a group more and the combinations and personalities that we have got at the Fever, even across our coaching staff … are incredible.

“I feel like it’s been a seamless transition for a lot of us. We have got six new players here …. and everyone is just saying the same thing.

“I am absolutely loving it so far, having been here half a season and hopefully it continues like this.”

One particular highlight of joining the Fever for Browne has been the opportunity to feed the league’s most dominant goaler, Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard.

It was a selling point Browne conceded she could not say no to.

“When Dan did (initially) call me I said ‘How could I turn down the opportunity to feed someone like Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard?,” Browne said.

“It’s so easy. I think she doesn’t get enough credit for the work that she does off the ball and just her strength and her ability in the air.

“She is such a skilful player and she does a lot of hard work. She is aggressive, she is strong, so it is quite easy to feed her.”

Kelsey Browne talks to the Fever players. Picture: Getty Images

One year on from the announcement of Collingwood’s demise as a netball franchise, Browne felt no animosity towards the club and had accepted what had transpired – even if she no longer supported the team in the AFL.

Reflecting on the team’s collapse, Browne, vice-captain in the Magpies’ final netball season, said the experience had taken more of a toll on the playing group than what she realised at the time.

“In hindsight, I look back on it and go, ‘That was far tougher than I was experiencing at the time’,” Browne said.

“You can’t really compute the ending of a club or a place that you have invested a lot of your time in, and for me it was five years of your netball career.

“We just kept going week to week and from process to process of getting through the games that were still left for our club.

“It was a really tough thing …. you prepare for a lot of things in elite sport, but your club folding is not often one of them. So it was a new experience for a lot of people.

“I feel as though the way it was communicated to us was quite transparent …. so as much as it was a disappointing result and not what you wanted to hear, I kind of understood it.

Kelsey Browne in action for the Magpies last year. Picture: Getty Images

“(There’s) no animosity. Obviously while I was in the four walls I started to go for Collingwood as an AFL team, I don’t go for them anymore. But maybe that’s the only thing to happen.

“But (there’s) no hate and I have just sort of moved on from what was a cool five years in a really big sporting club.”

Browne has signed a one-year contract with the Fever, but is unsure what her future holds beyond this season.

Having come close to a netball farewell once already, the 32-year-old has vowed to play in the moment.

“My whole thing coming into this year was, I had a taste of not having netball so it was how can I just enjoy every single moment that I have left in this sport and in my career here?,” Browne said.

“I don’t know what that is. I only signed a one-year contract, so it could be anything from nine games left if we make the grand final to another couple of years.

“I’m trying not to live in the future as much as I had in other parts of my career because I have experienced that moment in time where I had it taken away from me.

What do you think of Browne at the Fever? Picture: Getty Images

“I genuinely am just taking every single training session for let’s just enjoy this for what it is because you never know when it ends. That has been my mindset the whole time.

“At the moment I’m on a one-year contract, absolutely loving my time in Perth, but that’s where it’s at the moment.”

As the top-of-the-table Fever eye a premiership charge, could another Super Netball title sway a decision either way?

“I have thought about that as well. A lot of people have been like ‘Surely it will be like finish on a high’, but I’m a competitive person and I do really love this team,” Browne said.

“I feel like if we got to the end and won it would be tough to walk away. But honestly, that’s like a 50-50.

“It is something definitely in the back of my mind and I want to be there with this team and this group of girls in August and we are doing everything we possibly can, we have really ramped up our training in the past couple of weeks to make sure that we can get there.”

Originally published as West Coast midcourter Kelsey Browne on her career lifeline with the Fever, Collingwood’s demise one year on and her netball future