Melbourne Vixens’ Renae Ingles crosses Pacific seven times in three months

The Melbourne Vixens came up with a plan to keep one of their best players involved in preseason training.

Renae Ingles of the Melbourne Vixens has spent the netball pre-season travelling to and from Utah. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Renae Ingles can add a new achievement to a career that has included two gold medals, two premierships and a Diamond of the Year award.

As netball’s most frequent flyer, her record cannot be topped.

The veteran defensive midcourter has crossed the Pacific Ocean seven times since December, bouncing between pre-season training with Melbourne Vixens and time with her young family in Salt Lake City, where her husband, Joe, plays for Utah’s NBA team.

It’s the first full pre-season that Ingles has participated in since 2015. Renae stepped away from netball the following year after falling pregnant with twins Jacob and Milla, and has only been able to join Super Netball teams mid-season once Joe’s NBA commitments wrapped up.

Ingles sees this extended coda to her career as “bonus points”.

As the Vixens entered the home straight of their 2018 season, Ingles was in stellar form — earning an inclusion in the national squad — but doubted she could find a way to recommit to the team knowing she’d soon be packing bags for the US.

But coach Simone McKinnis and the team’s leadership group sat down with Ingles after the season and stressed that they wanted to find a way to keep the “invaluable” player in the squad.

So with the help of high-­performance staff, Ingles and the Vixens hammered out a plan: two weeks in Australia, two weeks in America — for five months.

It’s been a challenging process that encapsulates the opposing tugs all parents feel between family and careers.

Joe Ingles and wife Renae with their children in Utah. Picture: @renaeingles/Instagram

“Both Joe and I are aware that sporting careers are shortlived, so we want to put the most in while we can. We also want to set an example for our kids that if you put your mind to something, you can absolutely do it,” Ingles said.

“It’s been really tough juggling going backwards and forwards, but I’ve just had a motto in the back of my mind … if I’m away from my family and in this Vixens space, I really need to make that time worth it, and then vice versa.”

Renae stressed that she couldn’t do it without a supportive team and a supremely supportive husband.

McKinnis, however, insisted that “the biggest thing that makes it work is Renae — she’s that ­driven”.

Ingles has spent the week in Melbourne, training with the Vixens ahead of the Team Girls Cup, Super Netball’s pre-season tournament running in Brisbane from today until Sunday.

It’s the first chance to see how Australia’s netball sides shape up after an off-season of major shake-ups.

Ingles and her Vixens have returned largely unchanged save for the addition of Diamonds shooter Caitlin Thwaites, cast off by a retooled Magpies team, and South African youngster Ine-Mari Venter.

There will be huge interest around the new-look Collingwood team that have added a host of talent including English star Geva Mentor and Australian veteran Nat Medhurst.

All teams play four matches in three days — a challenge that will test pre-season training regimes and expose the depth that is often not tested in Super Netball matches.