Geva Mentor invigorated by new challenge at Magpies

England’s Geva Mentor insists that she’s invigorated about taking on one of the biggest challenges in Super Netball next year.

After back-to-back titles with Sunshine Coast, Geva Mentor has signed for Collingwood. Picture: Lachie Millard

England’s Geva Mentor says she’s invigorated about taking on one of the biggest challenges in Super Netball next year: turning around the culture of a struggling Magpies outfit.

Mentor signed with the Melbourne club for two seasons yesterday, the latest development in a contracting period that has generated unprecedented debate.

A two-year cap placed on contracts when the new league was established in 2016 meant every player would find themselves on the market when the 2018 season ended.

Almost as soon as Mentor and her Sunshine Coast Lightning teammates hoisted a second consecutive Super Netball trophy two weeks ago, any player who hadn’t been re-signed by her own team entered the open market.

It’s been a “massive” and “quite stressful” fortnight, according to Mentor. Melbourne Vixens head coach Simone McKinnis agreed.

“It is a really tough time for players. It’s not just players that may be changing teams but it’s players that are trying to get a place in a team, or are not getting offered another contract,” McKinnis said.

Accounts differ as to whether this free agency bonanza came about through design, necessity or accident, but the result has been a feverish period of activity in a sport that normally conducts its business out of the public eye.

Lightning lost Caitlin Bassett to the Giants in Sydney, and Mentor and Kelsey Browne to the Magpies, forcing Diamonds shooter Caitlin Thwaites to move from Collingwood to the Melbourne Vixens.

Sunshine Coast replenished their list by bringing back New Zealand’s Laura Langman after a one year sabbatical, and landing heavily chased Ugandan shooter Peace Proscovia.

The NSW Swifts and Queensland Firebirds retained nine of 10 starters from the season just gone.

Things remain uncomfortably quiet in South Australia, where the Thunderbirds are rebuilding after winning just one match in two dreadful seasons.

Half of Adelaide’s 10-player list is yet to be announced. The team has promised some news next week.

League employees say they’ve never seen anything like the debate that the movement has generated among fans.

“I think attention has really been captured around the world,” Mentor said.

“And that’s great because we’re looking to push ratings and raise the profile of the sport, particularly in Australia.”

New signings have been drip fed to maximise attention. Many teams have stoked speculation by dropping hints on social media.

All the significant Australian moves have been towards Sydney and Melbourne, where players can set up careers outside of netball.

Mentor said: “We’re also making sure we’re setting ourselves up for life post-playing career.”

There have also been rumblings that the league’s salary cap, which will rise by $15,000 per team next season, hasn’t kept pace with player expectations, leading to some tricky negotiations for clubs.

One league executive said a bidding war for talent had hurt the value of role players as teams focused on the big names.

It’s all a world away from the sport McKinnis played 20 years ago, when salaries were almost non-existent and player movement was unheard of.

“In my time playing elite netball you just finished the season, went off and turned up again the next season,” she said.

“Now being a professional netballer, the job, the career, it can take you anywhere.”