Travel bans could strand players for start of Super Netball season

Six international players could be left stranded overseas if the Super Netball season resumes before travel restrictions are lifted.

Thunderbirds player Shadine van der Merwe is one of six Super Netball players currently overseas. Picture: AAP

Six international players signed to Australian clubs who opted to fly home during the coronavirus crisis could be left stranded if the Super Netball season resumes before travel restrictions are relaxed.

Phumza Maweni, Lenize Potgeiter and Shadine van der Merwe all returned to South Africa, while English netballers Layla Guscoth, Natalie Haythornthwaite and Beth Cobden returned to Britain. Super Netball commissioner Chris Symington said that the league’s leaders will continue to work closely with the relevant government agencies “to understand when restrictions may be lifted and how and when those international players may be able to return to Australia”.

Sunshine Coast Lightning head coach Kylee Byrne acknowledged that she may not have Maweni, the team’s starting goal keeper in 2019, back at the club’s headquarters at Sippy Downs for some time.

“Yes, that’s the reality. We’re reliant on international borders, or exemptions from visas, and we had to have that conversation with Phumza before she left, just like every other club I guess, that these were the risks, and that certainly was one, that she might not be able to return,” Byrne said.

The league is on hiatus until at least July, and although several teams are increasingly optimistic that a Super Netball season in some format is achievable this year, there is no clarity on when that might happen.

International imports make up almost a quarter of Super Netball’s 80-player league. When borders began to close in March, the first priority for league officials was helping athletes travel back to be with their families.

Most overseas players opted to stay close to their clubs, including Collingwood captain Geva Mentor, English shooters Helen Housby and Jo Harten in Sydney, and star Lightning goal defence Karla Pretorius.

Some of the league’s Jamaican players considered travelling home, but it was simply too complicated. Instead, a small Carribean camp has been set up in Perth, with star West Coast shooter Jhaniele Fowler playing host to three interstate visitors.

Four of the six players who did leave Australia play for Adelaide Thunderbirds. Potgeiter and van der Merwe only had 90 minutes to decide whether or not to return to South Africa, while Cobden and Guscoth were squeezed onto one of the last flights to London the following day. “They were lucky to get out when they did,” Adelaide head coach Tania Obst said.

Obst added that she was optimistic about getting her players back in time for the season after some earlier doubts.

“I must admit, a week or 10 days ago, I thought ‘my goodness I don’t think they’re going to get back in’ … but now there is a little bit more positivity.