How playing in the United Kingdom revitalised Gabby Sinclair on and off the netball court

A ‘whole new environment’ can do wonders for any athlete, and for the Melbourne Mavericks’ goal attack Gabby Sinclair, she found it in Wales.

When Gabby Sinclair’s super shot sailed through the goal to breathe new life into the Melbourne Mavericks’ finals campaign, she gave no hint of being a player whose career had all but ended two years earlier.

When Collingwood deciding not to re-sign the diminutive goaler after the 2022 season, Sinclair was a player in the elite netball wilderness.

Out of love with the game and struggling to find the joy in the sport, Sinclair didn’t know if she’d even continue in the sport when all options suddenly seemed closed to her.

Sinclair had fallen out of love with netball when her time at the now-defunct Collingwood Magpies came to an end. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

“To be honest, after 2022 I didn’t think I was actually going to be playing netball in 2023 (at all),” Sinclair said.

“All the contracts in Australia were done (by the time I found out I wasn’t going to be re-signed) and all the contracts in New Zealand and over in the UK were all done.

“I was at a stage where I really wasn’t sure what I was going to do because I literally thought that was the end of my professional career.

“I wasn’t sure what I was going to be doing in 2024 and I just started to think, you know, do I still want to play netball, do I not want to play netball?

“And what, I guess, life after netball was going to look like.

“But then an opportunity came up and I just took it up with both hands and I loved every moment of playing over in the UK.”

Sinclair would not wish injury on another player.

But when South African goal attack Lefebre Rademan ruptured her ACL at the Commonwealth Games in 2022, UK Super League side Celtic Dragons needed a shooter and Sinclair headed to Wales for a year.

“My goal going over there was I just really wanted to enjoy my netball again and just love playing,” she said.

“I found 2022 at Collingwood quite challenging personally. And I think just going over to Cardiff in a whole new environment, new players, new coaching staff, a new country, it was just all very new, very exciting.

“They have a great culture over there at Dragons and it was very easy for me to come in and get involved and I think that environment really helped me to enjoy that love for the game again.”

Sinclair said going to the UK was the best thing she could have done – personally and professionally.

A stint in the UK, and back in Australia with the newly-minted Melbourne Mavericks, Gabrielle Sinclair has turned a corner. Picture: Kelly Defina/Getty Images

While she enjoyed her Collingwood stint, it was a hard-won position in what had been a tumultuous career.

“I was at Collingwood for four years and then didn’t get, re-offered a contract … but prior to that I was in ANL teams and then I’d be dropped, I got a training partnership with Collingwood, and I was dropped the next year.

“So it’s been just very up and down, I guess. Over the years, I feel like I’ve learned just to try and enjoy things as much and just take the opportunities that come my way.”

She did that at the Dragons, evolving in a stint that eventually won her a Super Netball recall when Tracey Neville came calling.

“I got to find myself a bit again (in the UK). I found my love for netball, I was able to go travelling and just kind of be me – and so I think coming back to SSN (Super Netball), I feel like I just knew myself a bit better and was more happy with who I was,” she said.

“I think all those things help you to be a better person and a better player as well.”

As part of the inaugural Mavs side, Sinclair is the perfect role player – doing her part alongside star goaler Eleanor Cardwell and towering target Shimona Jok and commanding the ball when it’s her time to shine.

Sinclair has found her role with the Mavericks. Picture: Graham Denholm/Getty Images

In the Mavs’ first win of the season, she helped drag her team across the line against the Sunshine Coast Lightning, sinking two super shots in the final minute of play to erase a four-point deficit before Jok broke the deadlock with just seconds remaining to seal a stunning victory.

Sinclair finished with nine goals, including five-of-six from two-point range and showed again last Sunday that she’s the Lightning’s kryptonite with another two super shot conversions in the final minute handing the Mavs a 72-71 win and keeping their finals hopes alive.

Sinclair experienced a euphoric feeling when that last shot dropped – as did her teammates and the growing Mavericks army.

But, she says, she was just doing her job.

“I enjoy, I guess those moments, and I feel like everyone around me gives me that confidence to just take the shot and go for it,” she said.

“I think as a goaler, that’s the aim of the game. You need to want the ball. You need to want to be able to shoot it and really inject yourself into the game.”

The Mavericks face a difficult equation to make the finals. With their percentage well below that of the Sunshine Coast, they need to leapfrog the Lightning to claim fourth place, even though the teams are currently level on points.

That means, they’re likely to need to win their last two games – against the last-placed, but improving, Giants, at Ken Rosewall Arena on Saturday before upsetting title contenders West Coast Fever in Perth next weekend.

“It’s been a very challenging year for everyone with the amount of injuries that we’ve had and also just being a new club but in saying that, I feel like it has really brought us all together and really made us stronger.

“So we’re really looking forward to the weekend and I think it’ll be a really good battle out there.”

Originally published as How playing in the United Kingdom revitalised Gabby Sinclair on and off the netball court