Super Netball 2023: Kelsey Browne on regaining form and finding her voice again
Kelsey Browne returns to the Collingwood leadership group this season reinvigorated and ready to produce her best as the Pies push for a maiden premiership.
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Kelsey Browne has found her voice again.
The former Diamonds midcourter and one of the fastest players in the game, Browne is back at her best after a tough few years that included a Magpies wooden spoon, a ruptured ACL and a challenging rehab.
Time was what Browne needed to return to the top.
And when Collingwood take the first centre pass in the opening match of the Super Netball season against the NSW Swifts next Saturday, Browne will hit the ground running as the Magpies’ reigning player of the year and a member of Australia’s victorious Fast5 World Series team.
Her own renaissance mirrors that of the Magpies.
After announcing a star-studded side for the inaugural Super Netball season, success was expected - but never came - for the Pies.
Instead they have rebuilt from the ground up, have a core of experienced players including co-captains Ash Brazill and Geva Mentor and Browne, who has returned as vice-captain after a break from leadership duties during her rehab.
“It’s the over 30s club,” Browne, 31, joked of the experienced group that includes foundation Magpie and Diamonds midcourter Brazill, 33, and England Roses stalwart Mentor, 38.
“Obviously there’s a wealth of experience there with Geva and ‘Braz’ in there.
“We’ve all been at the club for years - ‘Braz” for seven years since its inception and Geva and I for the last five.
“It’s an incredible honour to captain Collingwood in any role. So I’m just really excited to be there with those girls and learn from their experience.”
Under coach Nicole Richardson, the Magpies made the Super Netball finals last season, scraping into the four in the closest season on record and with few changes to their full-time list, this season, they will hit the ground running and have high expectations.
“I really felt for the teams at Collingwood for the first couple of years because the pressure was just insurmountable, what they had to deal with,” Browne said of a team that featured her sister, Diamond and two-time Liz Ellis Diamond winner Madi Browne.
“I feel like because of that (start), it allowed us to be able to actually have this rebuild.
“But we’ve kept a really core group of players together for four or five years now and what comes with that is a real gelling and a real knowledge that this is our brand and this is what we want to put out there and be known as.
“Now … we’re able to actually build on the years before instead of coming in fresh and having to lay those foundations again every single year, so that’s the positive of Collingwood at the moment, and I think it’s a really exciting 2023 season ahead.”
Browne too will hit the ground running with full confidence in her reconstructed knee, finally feeling like herself again after inching her way back to full flight.
“I would openly say it took me about 20 months to feel like myself again,” she said.
“You can be as prepared and as physically and mentally capable as you like, it just still takes that time.
“It probably does mimic a little bit of my personal rebuild in the last three years and I feel like I’ve found my voice again after having those setbacks.
“The club’s given me an opportunity to step away from a leadership position or having a title against my name and allowed me to just grow into being a player again and now I feel like I’ve transitioned back into that strong voice and being comfortable in what I can contribute in a leadership group.”
She’s also comfortable enough in her performance to say she wants to be in consideration for the Diamonds’ World Cup squad, although with that completely out of her control, won’t sweat on selection to the world’s best midcourt.
“I would desperately love to be back in there,” Browne said.
“It’s not something that is absolutely ruining me. My sole focus is Collingwood and I think if you’re playing well at your club, I think it speaks volumes anyway, and things sort of happen.
“But I definitely haven’t shied away from the fact that I would love to represent my country again.
“If it happens, great. If it doesn’t, I’ll still be very proud of what I’ve been able to achieve and I am all guns blazing with Collingwood and I would just absolutely love for this team to win a premiership while I’m still around.”
VIXENS ON ‘REDEMPTION ARC’ AS GF PAIN FUELS 2023 CAMPAIGN
By Emma Greenwood
Melbourne defender Jo Weston says the Vixens have used the pain of last year’s Super Netball grand final loss to fuel their 2023 campaign in a season shaping as the closest on record.
Weston, who missed both the Diamonds’ Quad Series tour and last weekend’s Team Girls Cup with a calf injury, hopes to be ready for round one - a grand final rematch between the Vixens and premiers West Coast Fever in Perth on March 18.
The Fever won a maiden title with a 70-59 drubbing of the Vixens in front of almost 14,000 fans at a packed RAC Arena in Perth, dominating the minor premiers from the opening centre pass.
“But like with any experience, you can’t get hung up on it, you have to move on.
“And for us, we have used it as fuel for this year and all the work we’ve put in over the pre-season, so hopefully that’s really showing out on court.”
The Fever won the pre-season Team Girls Cup on the Gold Coast last weekend, while the Vixens finished third overall, with both teams showcasing their depth to perform despite some injury issues.
Weston, whose calf problems were spurred by a “significant” ankle injury suffered last year, was initially unaware of the extent of the problem.
“I went to the (Diamonds’ pre-Quad Series) camp in Canberra (in January) and I was probably a question mark then,” she said.
“We’ve got such a depth of talent in the Diamonds squad that it was a really good opportunity for other players to go.
“I got back into training and things didn’t go exactly to plan but it was just a little bit of a side step rather than a back step.
“But long-term, I think it’s going to be right as rain.”
While the calf problem is a latent effect from a previous ankle injury, rather than a tear, Weston and the Vixens are taking the cautious route getting the champion goal defence back on court in a huge year of netball.
As well as her Vixens campaign, Weston will be a key figure for the Diamonds in their mission to regain the World Cup - now the only piece of silverware missing from their trophy cabinet.
Before then though, Weston’s focus is solely on the Vixens and Super Netball.
“For now, Vixens are definitely my focus. We do have the World Cup at the end of the season but that is still quite a long way away,” she said.
“And we really want to have a bit of a redemption arc from our grand final loss last year.
“I’ve been really disappointed not to be able to actually have that time out on court.
“I have been in training and out of training, in training and out of training. So I definitely have been trying to make the most of the moments I’ve been out on court.”
As president of the Australian Netball Players Association, Weston also faces a big season off the court helping act as the voice of the athletes who will negotiate a new Collective Players Agreement (CPA) with Netball Australia before every Super Netball player comes off contract at the end of the season.
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Originally published as Super Netball 2023: Kelsey Browne on regaining form and finding her voice again
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