The race to 9000 national league goals is over with Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard edging out Romelda Aiken-George
Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard has created netball history, beating fellow Jamaican Romelda Aiken-George in the race to a sporting milestone. Here’s how the race was won.
Jamaican shooting stars Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard and Romelda Aiken-George were locked in a private race to become the first player to sink 9,000 national league goals. And the former has edged out her rival hitting heights no other player in the history of the ANZ Premiership and Super Netball can match.
Fowler-Nembhard needed just 12 goals to reach the magic 9,000 milestone in the West Coast Fever’s match against the Giants in Sydney, and claimed that prize early in the, encounter streeting past the mark.
A new record for Fowler-Nembhard 😮â€ðŸ’¨
— Suncorp Super Netball (@SuperNetball) May 24, 2025
9000 national league goals and counting ðŸ
Watch every game live on Kayo Sports, Foxtel and Binge. pic.twitter.com/sxdlUP4AGq
How the race was won
Aiken-George, who forged a path for Jamaican players to follow, joined the Queensland Firebirds in the then-ANZ Championship’s inaugural season in 2008, immediately winning league MVP honours.
Fowler-Nembhard joined the New Zealand-based Southern Steel in 2013, also scooping league MVP honours in her first season.
Since then the pair has dominated the league, winning individual awards, premierships and each earning reputations as being among the most influential players of their generation.
*where the two players stood before the start of round seven below
Thanks to her headstart in the league – and Fowler-Nembhard playing in New Zealand’s stand-alone ANZ Premiership in 2017, the first Super Netball season – Aiken-George held a handy lead over her Sunshine Girls teammate in overall scoring records until sitting out the 2022 season while pregnant with daughter Gianna.
Fowler-Nembhard, who holds the records for most points scored in a Super Netball season (979) and single game (70) – both set in the opening super shot season in 2020 – scores at a greater clip then Aiken-George and overhauled her countrywoman last season.
But with Fowler-Nembhard sitting out the opening two games of the season while still on leave, Aiken-George made up some ground and the pair head toward 9000 career goals neck and neck.
Fowler-Nembhard was just 12 goals short of the mark on 8988 goals leading into round seven, while Aiken-George heads into round seven with 8922 goals to her name, 78 short of the milestone.
The pair is well ahead of their nearest rivals in the league.
Shimona Jok, another Jamaican import shooter now playing for the Melbourne Mavericks, recently passed 4000 career goals and is the second-most prolific scorer in the Super Netball era behind Fowler-Nembhard, who has well and truly passed 6400 Super Netball goals, while Aiken-George has 3863 Super Netball goals.
Can Mavs keep Cardwell?
Eleanor Cardwell says she sees herself ending her career in England but exactly when she returns to the Netball Super League is up in the air as the goaler chases a second Super Netball premiership.
Cardwell was a revelation in her first season in Australia, helping the Adelaide Thunderbirds break a decade-long premiership drought before she followed former England Roses and T-Birds assistant coach Tracey Neville to the Melbourne Mavericks.
But Cardwell has struggled to find her best form since, with knee injuries and a pair of surgeries restricting her time on court.
The canny shooter is out of contract at the end of this season and is yet to decide whether she’ll return.
“With Mavericks, I’m only contracted for this year. So obviously those discussions need to be had,” Cardwell told Engand’s Sky Sports’ Off the Court podcast.
“I can see myself going home at some point. I just don’t know when that will be, whether it be next year, the year after, in three year’s time.”
The Mavericks had just one player – defender Kim Brown – contracted for next year, with Neville also off contract at the end of the season.
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