Lightning strikes deal with African bookends Peace Proscovia and Phumza Maweni

The Sunshine Coast Lightning has laid the foundation for a stable 2021 by re-signing African bookends Peace Proscovia and Phumza Maweni.

The Lightning’s twin towers Peace Proscovia and Phumza Maweni have re-signed

The Sunshine Coast Lightning has laid the foundation for a stable 2021 team by re-signing experienced African bookends Peace Proscovia and Phumza Maweni.

“I’m really excited to have another season with the Sunshine Coast Lightning,” Proscovia said on Monday. “This team, the people around me, it feels like home, another home.”

The Ugandan captain played a reduced role in 2020 after Australian national squad member Cara Koenen emerged as the Lightning’s predominant scoring option. But that shift hasn’t upset the 193cm shooter nicknamed the “Warid Tower”.

“Yes, I would have yearned for more court time, but training with (the Lightning) is also experience for me. My time will come. Whether it’s five minutes, 10 minutes, I’m still OK with it,” Proscovia said.

Maweni anchored the Lightning’s defensive end all season next to fellow South African Karla Pretorius. At 36, Maweni is Super Netball’s oldest player, and the league’s self-proclaimed mother.

The two Africans are roommates on the Sunshine Coast and both describe the other as family. It has been a tough season for the league’s imports, unsure of when border restrictions might allow them to return home.

“I can say that it’s not an easy thing, especially those days where you wake up and you are missing people back home, you just want to be with them,” Proscovia said.

Maweni was stranded alone in Johannesburg for a month in April after sudden border closures complicated a journey home to visit her son. She will fly back to Cape Town in November for the summer, and hopes to return to the Lightning early in the new year.

Proscovia hasn’t seen her family since February, and is in a holding pattern as she waits for lockdowns in Uganda to ease.

The Lightning missed out on a Super Netball grand final berth for the first time in 2020 after a humbling 73-59 preliminary final loss to West Coast Fever.

Maweni was frustrated by her own form in that match, but is looking forward to a chance to make amends next season.

“It kills me … I didn’t reach my goal. But I still have a chance to try again.”

Meanwhile, Jemma Mi Mi has managed to put aside her snubbing during Super Netball’s Indigenous round and re-signed with the Queensland Firebirds for another season.

Super Netball’s only Indigenous player, Mi Mi was given no court time during this year’s Indigenous round despite being used to help promote the competition.

It sparked criticism of the club and coach Roselee Jencke, who said not playing Mi Mi was a team-based decision.

Many former Indigenous players, including retired Diamonds Marcia Ella-Duncan and Sharon Finnan-White, expressed their disappointment and frustration with the Firebirds and with netball.

But Mi Mi has put her own disappointment to one side and joined Firebirds captain Gabi Simpson and Lara Dunkley in recommitting to the club for the 2021 season.

Firebirds high-performance director Jeremy Hickmans said Mi Mi was “central to the club’s ethos”.

“Gabi possesses a genuine ability to change games and her leadership and intensity are both critical components in our Firebirds brand of netball,” Hickmans said.

“Similarly, Jemma’s passion, resilience and workrate have a big influence on this group and are qualities we both admire in her but also see as central to our club’s ethos.”

Simpson, Mi Mi and Dunkley join Kim Ravaillion, shooters Gretel Bueta, Romelda Aiken and Tippah Dwan and defenders Kim Jenner, Tara Hinchliffe and Rudi Ellis as confirmed signings for the Firebirds for the 2021 Super Netball season.

The NSW Swifts have confirmed their leaders will return for the 2021 campaign.

Captain Maddy Proud and her deputy Paige Hadley will lead the Swifts next season after signing new contracts. Players aren’t allowed to sign contracts beyond next season with the current collective bargaining agreement expiring at the end of 2021.

Proud said watching the Vixens celebrate on Sunday sparked the fire in her for next season after missing out on their chance to defend their 2019 title.

“We didn’t get the chance to run out as premiers in front of our own fans due to COVID and that should be a massive motivation for us to win another title,” she said.

“What better way to make that right than by trying to secure a title on your own patch.

“We blew our chance to be in another grand final and we’ll have to live with that for the off-season.”

Hadley said she was delighted to recommit to the club she’d supported since childhood.

“This Swifts mean so much to me and I get such a sense of pride every time I step out on court in the red dress,” she said.

“Missing out on another title this year hurts and it should because that means you care.

“I want to take everything we’ve learned in the Queensland hub and use it to bring us back to the mountain top. I can’t wait to get started again.”

Additional reporting: NCA NEWSWIRE