Ruby Bakewell-Doran opens up on pressure, change and the Firerbirds’ Super Netball rebirth

Ruby Bakewell-Doran has opened up on the changes — personal and collective — that after a hellish 12 months have the Firebirds dreaming of a finals charge for the first time in seven years.

She’s playing with a new-found freedom, is captaining her club and has led the Queensland Firebirds to their best ever start to a Super Netball season.

Ruby Bakewell-Doran has emerged from a hellish last 18 months that forced a “shift of mindset” that put the role of netball in her life into perspective and released the pressure valve that was holding the Diamonds defender back.

An untimely ankle injury that ultimately required surgery prevented the defender from adding to her international caps in 2023 and she missed the squad last year after the Firebirds’ disappointing season and pressure that she had heaped on her own shoulders.

“It was definitely a bit of a rollercoaster year,” she said of the past 18 months that has included surgery, a tumultuous Super Netball season and significant cultural change that has a Bakewell-Doran led Firebirds sitting in second place on the ladder as one of only two undefeated teams.

Queensland Firebirds co-captain Ruby Bakewell-Doran. Picture Lachie Millard

“But I think it was good in the sense that it really shifted my mindset on everything, and just the fact that I think I put it into perspective that netball is such a tiny part of your life, when you actually look at your whole life, it’s this sort of little blip.

“If you don’t absolutely love it for the few years that you do it, you’re going to look back and just regret not just enjoying the ride and not playing it because you love it.

“And I think that that shift was so good for me.”

In a tough season for the Firebirds, Bakewell-Doran shone and while she lost her Diamonds place when the initial squad was named mid-season, by the end of the year she was invited back into the fold as a training partner and donned the gold dress in New Zealand as part of the Aussies’ Fast5 side.

“Even just going into the Diamonds environment, I felt like I actually played with this freedom that I never played with before,” Bakewell-Doran said.

“So as much as it was awful (to be dropped) and it was definitely a bit of a rock bottom moment, it’s been a lot better since.”

Once she made her Super Netball debut, Bakewell-Doran’s rise was meteoric.

She was added to the Diamonds’ squad in 2022 — her first full-time season in Super Netball — as a travelling reserve for the Commonwealth Games team before making her Australian debut later that year.

Ruby Bakewell-Doran’s rise through the netball ranks was meteoric. Photo: Getty Images

She was the World Cup defensive reserve the following year and seemed set to add to her Test match tally in the series against South Africa before that ankle injury intervened.

It’d be easy then to fall out of love with the game when not selected again last year after what was a tough domestic season with the Firebirds.

“I think it’s just pressure, right? It’s the pressure you put on yourself, I think, to perform - and that obviously comes from a place of wanting to do really well and wanting to do your country and club proud,” she said.

“But (putting that pressure on yourself) doesn’t work. It does not work.”

Ultimately, Bakewell-Doran regained that love for the game last year and for playing for the Firebirds, understanding that if she was to spend so much time in the club environment she needed to be enjoying it.

Now the Firebirds co-captain, she believes the club has made the changes that were needed after a couple of tough seasons — and is ready to reap the rewards.

“I think the club took a very long, hard look at itself last year and realised that there was just a lot of things that needed to change,” Bakewell-Doran said ahead of the Super Netball season.

Ruby Bakewell-Doran (left) with fellow Firebirds co-captain Hulita Veve. Picture Lachie Millard

“I think we’re really lucky in our leadership that they’ve been doing that from the top down, and it’s already made a massive impact, I think, on us as players and staff.

“I think there’s just a really good feeling, really professional feeling, at the club, and a connectedness as well. So it’s been really good environment.”

Bakewell-Doran played every minute of every match for the Firebirds last season, the only player in the competition to do so apart from Diamonds captain Liz Watson — one of the players she will face on Saturday night when the Firebirds take on the Lightning in the Queensland derby on the Sunshine Coast.

On the back of Watson’s 150th national league match in the opening round of the season, Lightning pair Cara Koenen and Mahalia Cassidy — one of six former Firebirds full-time or training squad players in the Lightning ranks — will celebrate their 100th match.

The Firebirds will attempt to win the derby for the first time since 2022, when they trumped by 28 points in round 2.