Team Girls Cup 2023: Donnell Wallam battles Shamera Sterling as Diamonds selectors watch on
This time last year, Donnell Wallam didn’t even have a Super Netball contract. Now, after a ‘bizarre’ 12 months, she has a whole new set of challenges.
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Just 12 months ago, Donnell Wallam headed to the Team Girls Cup a relative unknown chasing a chance to nab a Super Netball contract.
What a difference a year makes.
Wallam started last year’s pre-season competition making every post a winner for the Queensland Firebirds to ensure she would pick up a temporary replacement player contract to replace stalwart Romelda Aiken, who sat out the season while pregnant with her first child.
All she needed was an opportunity – a chance to stick her foot in the door, something she did at the Team Girls Cup last year when she starred for the Firebirds, before bolting on to the Commonwealth Games squad and eventually making her Diamonds debut late last year.
“It’s so bizarre,” Wallam said of a whirlwind past year.
“Last Team Girls Cup I wasn’t even contracted yet.
“There was just so much going on – it was kind of like a trial.”
Wallam is not yet ready to address the controversy that surrounded her maiden Diamonds campaign.
But one thing is for sure. After heading back to clubland this season, with the aim of picking up one of those gold dresses for this year’s World Cup in July, Wallam can hardly believe the journey she’s been on the past 12 months.
“So much is different (now), the position I’m in now and yes, it’s going to be a different (Super Netball) competition but it’s surreal,” she said.
Over the weekend, she donned the purple singlet again at the Team Girls Cup but this time, Wallam was far from an unknown.
With Gretel Bueta sitting out the season while pregnant with her second child, Wallam will take on added responsibility for the Firebirds and enters the Super Netball season a marked woman, the target of every team’s circle defenders.
She says she’s up for the task though – something her performance against the Adelaide Thunderbirds’ Shamera Sterling – the woman rated by many as the best goalkeeper in the world – proved true.
“I was really looking forward to it because I just wanted to improve from last season,” Wallam said.
“So it was about working on the things that I set out to do and I think it was just really valuable for my game and it was really exciting.”
Wallam and Collingwood’s Sophie Garbin are likely to be fighting for one spot in the Diamonds team for the World Cup and despite Wallam’s heroics on debut – breaking a deadlock to seal a win for Australia against England with a signature lay-up in the final seconds after a week of intense off-court scrutiny – she knows she needs to add new dimensions to her game if she is to win back her spot.
“(I’m) just working on being a dominant holding shooter but also adding in other tools to use every now and then – having a variety of things to do so I don’t become predictable,” she said of feedback she had received from national coach Stacey Marinkovich on her game.
“That was my main focus as well coming into the game (against Sterling).
“It’s always good to play against quality GKs (goalkeepers) because you just take so much out of the game.”
Marinkovich and Diamonds selectors were among the interested onlookers throughout the tournament – and Friday in particular when Wallam and Sterling went head-to-head.
Wallam acknowledge the pressure but said it came as much from her as selectors.
“Now that I am in the Diamonds squad there is always pressure to perform – and not only for them but for myself as well,” Wallam said.
“I want to be the best version of myself out there. So I’m constantly giving myself feedback on trying to be better – so there’s pressure from them, pressure from me.
“I just try and put it out of my mind and just focus on what I need to work on and try to be better every single game. And then hopefully, my performance out on court is the best that I can be.”
Team Girls Cup wrap: TBirds the real deal, Pies’ injury woes
West Coast coach Dan Ryan may have banned “back-to-back” talk at the Fever but that’s unlikely to stop the buzz around the team’s ability to add to their trophy cabinet having finally broken their Super Netball title hoodoo.
Yes, it’s only pre-season and the Team Girls Cup trophy will count for little in July if the team in green is not in the Super Netball decider.
But the past few days on the Gold Coast has showcased both the Fever’s depth and the competition within the squad for spots — two ingredients that are vital for premiership success.
There aren’t many times in season you’ll see Jhaniele Fowler on the bench but Ryan sat his superstar shooter after the first half, giving Sasha Glasgow and Nat Butler (nee Medhurst) control in the attacking circle, while Diamonds defender Courtney Bruce also sat out a period and Sunday Aryang played just a half of netball.
It showcases the enormous depth in the Fever squad and the confidence Ryan has in each woman to do her job.
It was also the difference in the final quarter when the game was on the line.
After being tied at the end of the first and second periods and earning a buffer of just a single goal at the final break, the Fever shone when the game was on the line.
Put their strongest combinations on the court consistently and they’ll be raging favourites to do the double.
THUNDERBIRDS REAL DEAL
Seemingly every season there’s talk about the Adelaide Thunderbirds and their chances of pushing into the Super Netball finals for the first time.
The South Aussies led the competition in the early rounds last year before ultimately falling out of the top four and failing to make the playoffs.
They already had an international shooter in South African Lenize Potgieter.
But the move to replace her with England’s El Cardwell was a masterstroke.
While her ability in the circle is outstanding, it’s her fierce competitive nature that could be the difference.
Cardwell was in everything over the weekend — and she’s no one-trick pony.
A strong holding goaler, she also has the ability to shoot from range and the Thunderbirds suddenly have enormous versatility.
Play Cardwell and Lucy Austin and they have a pair of talls that can challenge any defenders in the league; switch in nippy goal attacks Georgie Horjus or Tippah Dwan and they can play a moving circle or use Cardwell as a target under the post.
With arguably the best defensive pair in the competition in Jamaican’s Shamera Sterling and LaTanya Wilson and their bevy of local midcourters with another year under their belt, the Thunderbirds are the real deal in 2023 and finals should be a minimum goal.
AGEING LIKE FINE WINES
All things old were new again at the Team Girls Cup.
Romelda Aiken-George and Nat Butler (Medhurst) lined up against each other in the opening game on Friday, throwing up a pair of shooters that could have been playing more than a decade ago.
As a training partner for the Fever, it’s unlikely that Butler, a former Diamonds goaler, will gain significant court time this season unless the Fever sustain an injury to one of their main shooters.
But the impetus for West Coast’s inaugural premiership came from the culture and competition built by the whole squad and Butler will be a crucial part of the team if the Fever are to threaten for the title again.
Aiken-George will play a part in the season proper, with Swifts goaler Sam Wallace not expected to be fully recovered from her knee reconstruction by round 1.
Wallace suffered a devastating knee injury in the opening round last year, tearing her ACL, PCL and “pretty much everything” else, causing so much swelling she had to wait six weeks for surgery.
Young gun Sophie Fawns stepped up in her absence last year – so well she was offered a full-time contract with the Swifts this season.
Fawns and England international Helen Housby gave Briony Akle’s team a dynamic moving circle last year and while they have that option again, the addition of Aiken-George gives the Swifts a towering presence under the goal.
COACH’S EAGLE EYE
Diamonds coach Stacey Marinkovich was an interested onlooker at the Team Girls Cup, watching the pre-season competition from a position high in the grandstands at the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre with fellow Australian selectors Anne Sargent and Michelle Wilkins and general manager of performance Stacey West.
One of the most interesting contests is likely to have been the clash between Thunderbirds and Jamaican defender Shamera Sterling and Firebirds goaler Donnell Wallam.
Wallam is among the shooters competing for a Diamonds spot in the absence of superstar shooter Gretel Bueta, who will miss July’s World Cup while pregnant with her second child.
With Steph Wood and Cara Koenen looking locks for the trip to South Africa and Kiera Austin and Sophie Dwyer battling for a goal attack spot, Wallam and Collingwood’s Sophie Garbin – who was part of the successful Quad Series defence in January – are likely to be competing head-to-head for the final shooting role.
Their success against Sterling – one of the best keepers in the world – England and Collingwood defender Geva Mentor and the Sunshine Coast’s intercept queen Karla Pretorius is likely to weigh heavily in the selection debate.
Wallam was impressive throughout the tournament, causing plenty of problems for defenders and showing off the variety of skills Marinkovich and Diamonds selectors want to see from her.
Garbin missed the tournament with a minor calf strain.
While it’s not expected to impact her start to the season, Magpies officials acted out of caution in keeping her out of the pre-season tournament and its back-to-back games.
BIRDIES WILL SURPRISE
The Queensland Firebirds are likely to have been most people’s pick as Super Netball wooden spooners this season after losing internationals Gretel Bueta (maternity leave) and Eboni Usoro-Brown (retirement), as well as Kim Jenner (Fever) and Jemma Mi Mi (motherhood).
They struggled in their opening couple of matches, going down to the Adelaide Thunderbirds by 18 in the tournament opener and Giants by 11 in game two.
But they hung on to beat the Vixens by three goals in a Saturday night thriller and ensured they did not finish last with a 49-40 win over an understrength Magpies.
The Birdies will be better than people think but there’s a decent gap between their best seven and the rest and the experience gained by some of their young guns at the weekend could prove invaluable down the track.
TOUGH WEEKEND FOR PIES
It was a tough few days at the office for the Magpies, who headed into the tournament without Garbin (calf) and ended it with starters Geva Mentor (cork) and Kelsey Browne (whiplash) on the sidelines.
Browne had plenty in the crowd worried on Friday night when she crashed to the court after a collision in the match against the Lightning.
Concussion was the initial fear, although Browne bounced up immediately and played on.
But she was unable to back up on Saturday, suffering the effects of the fall on her neck.
After sneaking into the finals last season though, Collingwood are determined to be in the premiership conversation in 2023.
TEAM GIRLS CUP RESULTS
SUNDAY
Grand final: Fever 49 Thunderbirds 41
Playoff for third: Vixens 39 Lightning 38
Playoff for fifth: Swifts 44 Giants 38
Playoff for seventh: Firebirds 49 def Magpies 40
SATURDAY
Magpies 42 drew Swifts 42
Fever 46 def Lightning 43
Thunderbirds 34 def Vixens 33
Giants 48 def Firebirds 37
Fever 53 def Magpies 43
Lightning 46 def Swifts 41
Firebirds 43 def Vixens 40
Thunderbirds 39 def Giants 31
FRIDAY
Swifts 41 def Fever 37
Vixens 46 def Giants 40
Lightning 38 drew Magpies 38
Thunderbirds 51 def Firebirds 33
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