Super Netball player moves: Romelda Aiken-George to continue outstanding career into 16th season and third club
Romelda Aiken-George is set to link with a new Super Netball club and extend her brilliant career, writes LINDA PEARCE.
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Romelda Aiken-George’s grand career is expected to continue into a 16th Super Netball season at what would be her third club, with reigning premiers Adelaide Thunderbirds the logical new home for the Jamaican shooting great.
Aiken-George, who turns 35 next month, was not offered a contract by the Queensland Firebirds after giving birth to daughter Gianna in 2022. She was then signed as a training partner by the NSW Swifts before replacing the rehabilitating Sam Wallace and celebrating her 200th game against her original club in round two.
But with Wallace being given every chance to return from what has stretched into a devastating two-year absence, and Aiken-George keen to play on after helping the Swifts to their latest grand final appearance, the Thunderbirds loom large as the destination given the shooting rosters at the remaining SSN clubs are full.
“Romelda was one goal away from being a four-time premiership player in 2023 so I am sure she will land on a SSN roster in 2024, but I‘ll reserve comment until the league opens up and contracts can be signed,’’ her husband and manager Daniel George indicated to CODE Sports.
When pressed on whether a formal offer had been received, George confirmed there were “conversations going on”, but that Romelda was waiting for the official contracting period to open and would “take it from there’’.
CODE Sports has established that no other team has more than one spot open on its primary list of 10, as the CPA stalemate heads to mediation in the hope of a long overdue resolution, while the team licensing deals, despite being closer, also remain incomplete.
With the Fever, Lightning, Vixens and Mavericks’ lists previously completed, the Swifts have filled their one vacancy by promoting 2022-23 training partner Lili Gorman-Brown to replace Tayla Fraser, as flagged, while the Giants will recontract midcourter Amy Sligar and need one more defender — possibly young keeper Erin O’Brien — to finalise their group.
In Queensland, having welcomed back Tippah Dwan from two seasons in Adelaide and upgraded mature-aged WD/C Hulita Veve in place of the Lightning-bound Leesa Mi Mi, the Firebirds also still have one circle defensive spot to be settled.
But, in what has been a surprise to some given this year’s success, there continues to be speculation and uncertainty over the Thunderbirds just over three months after they broke a decade-long championship drought.
If valuable import Eleanor Cardwell was always likely to follow assistant coach and her long-time English mentor Tracey Neville to the Melbourne Mavericks’ start-up, then Dwan’s also-explainable return home to the Queensland Firebirds stripped the T-birds of their other starting shooter.
And, given the shortage of experienced goal attacks that has seen West Coast Fever look to 28-year-old Jamaican Shanice Beckford to partner Jhaniele Fowler, and the Mavs to recall Gabby Sinclair to SSN after the unwanted Magpie was effectively demoted to the UK Superleague in 2023, replacements have not been easy to find.
Impressive young spearhead Lucy Austin remains – but with only 20 games of mostly off-the-bench experience across the season-and-a-bit in which the 190 centimetre prospect has emerged as not just a post-up target, but willing and accurate from two-point range.
Also back in pink will be Austin’s friend and partner through the South Australian junior ranks, Georgie Horjus, also 21, who remains a circle option and thus provides added flexibility in team selection — including the prospect of a pair of specialist goal shooters — but is now clearly one of the competition’s leading wing attacks.
Like Austin, Horjus will represent Australia for a second time at the Fast5 World Series in Christchurch next month in a team that includes fellow T-birds Hannah Petty, Matilda Garrett and Tayla Williams, plus the departing Dwan.
Shifting the diminutive Horjus back to her original position of goal attack would leave a second midcourt vacancy given Maisie Nankivell’s decision to join Neville and Cardwell at the Mavs, but for robbing-Peter-paying-Paul reasons is not the preferred option.
Talented goal attack Nyah Allen, another South Australian pathway product, earned her first SSN contract with Collingwood in 2023 after 16 games while a Pies’ training partner, but failed to resume after major pre-Christmas chest surgery to treat a musculoskeletal condition.
The 22-year-old was in the mix at Fever, and flown to Perth for a trial and medical assessment before Beckford and the taller Victorian prospect Liv Wilkinson were preferred. Allen may appeal more as a training partner at this stage.
Yet if Adelaide’s plans to replace Dwan are unclear, it was one of about four clubs to have sounded out exciting Swift Sophie Fawns, who filled more of a two-point-specialist role in the latter stages of the season, but is valued as a long-term fixture in the Paige Hadley mould and will remain in red.
An interesting element still to be finalised – and one which may influence the last handful of decisions still to be made – is the rookie spot that was included in last week’s three-year CPA offer from Netball Australia and the clubs.
The proposal was for one nominated training partner per club to be eligible for selection beyond as an injury/illness replacement, but the terms are yet to be agreed.
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Originally published as Super Netball player moves: Romelda Aiken-George to continue outstanding career into 16th season and third club
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