Firebirds’ mature age recruit Hulita Veve making an impact after almost giving up on netball career

After years juggling childcare and school runs, Hulita Veve thought it was time to give up on the dream. Then came a life-changing phone call.

So many times, Hulita Veve had sweated on the off-season phone call that would determine whether her Super Netball dream would become a reality.

Got her hopes up. Dared to believe. Made herself vulnerable, only to have her ultimate goal of earning a full-time playing contract shattered. Again.

Veve had been netball’s next big thing. A national age representative then-Australian coach Lisa Alexander, among others, had pegged as a future Diamond.

She played for the Queensland Firebirds in 2016, helping the team defended its championship in the trans-Tasman league a year before the birth of Super Netball.

And then, she became a mum.

Jakiah, 7, and Jeremiah, 5, are Veve’s “why”. They, along with husband Jerome have encouraged and supported her to continue to chase her netball dreams.

They’re why Veve spent years as a Firebirds training partner pocketing just a few thousand dollars while juggling work on the side, determined to show her sons the value of working hard towards a dream.

Why she shuffled childcare and school runs and other mum duties with her sporting commitments.

Why she never gave up on her dreams – despite coming incredibly close a few times.

Hulita Veve along with teammates, Kim Ravaillion and Alison Miller juggle motherhood with their club commitments. Picture: Liam Kidston

“I was really lucky to still be able to be a training partner for the last few years but as I am getting older – I’m nearly 30 – I did give up hope,” Veve said.

“It was not that I was giving up but I wanted to get out so that I could let someone else come in.

“In a training partner role, I feel like that’s for young girls that are emerging. (Players) go in that program for two or three years and then they get their chance and I just felt too old to be in there and I wanted to get out to give someone else a chance.

“That was my thought process this year. If I didn’t get a contract, I would just stop just to let a young one come in.”

Firebirds coach Bec Bulley had already had to convince Veve to stay on as a training partner last year when she missed a full-time contract.

It proved a masterstroke, with the midcourter in top form ahead of the World Cup in South Africa where she captained Tonga’s team, knowing how proud it would have made her father, Sione Haukinima.

With that form behind her, and a few Super Netball games in her back pocket in 2023 after fellow midcourter Macy Gardner broke her arm, Veve nervously waited for contract news for 2024, having her wait delayed even further by the protracted pay battle that made contracting enormously difficult for teams.

Bulley had advised Veve the club was “definitely keen on me”. But getting her hopes up again was dangerous territory.

Could she take another rejection?

Hulita Veve burst into tears when she received the phone call confirming her dream was now a reality. Picture: Kelly Defina/Getty Images.

Dream phone call

It was stress of a different kind that was occupying Veve’s mind last year when she eventually got news from the Firebirds.

At the beach with her sons, sister and mother, Veve, whose husband Jerome plays for the Tweed Heads Seagulls in the Queensland Cup, Veve was attempting to book tickets for the family to watch the Brisbane Broncos.

“I was in the middle of booking the Broncos tickets for the NRL final and I was stressed about that and then (Bulley) called and I thought, I’ve got to answer,” Veve said.

“So I answered it and she told me I was in the 10 (full-time playing list). I just started bawling my eyes out.”

Remembering how shattered her daughter had been in the past after missing a contract, Veve’s mother came to comfort her only to find they were tears of happiness.

“That was such a wonderful phone call to make to let her know that she’d won a contract,” Bulley said.

“When you’ work so hard and you get an opportunity, you’re prepared to work so hard and you’re so grateful and you do whatever it takes.

“That’s Hulita and there’s a couple of players in our team that are in exactly the same situation.

“You can see that she just takes on board the feedback and works really to implement it and I’m just delighted with how she’s going at this stage.”

Hulita Veve is making the most of her second chance with the Firebirds. Picture: Mackenzie Sweetnam/Getty Images.

Veve has plenty of fans, including some significant netball identities including Tonga’s World Cup assistant coach Briony Akle, former Firebirds captain Laura Geitz and ex Diamonds mentor Lisa Alexander.

“I coached Hulita back when she was U19 in the Australian squad and I identified her then as a player that I really wanted to come through all the way to the Diamonds,” Alexander said.

“However, things got in the way of course – not kids, but life.

“I’m absolutely delighted she’s got a spot with (the Firebirds) this year. It’s an amazing story.”

Veve is thankful for everyone who’s backed her in over the years and convinced her to keep going.

But it’s her family she reserves special praise for. Having her mother there to witness the moment she won a contract was one that will bond them forever.

“It was so special. She cried with me and she was just super happy,” Veve said.

“She always says how proud she is of me. I’m the only kid she has that plays sport, so she’s the one that took me to all my trainings with dad as well, so it was good to kind of reward my mum for all the hard work that she’s done.”

Do as I do

Every time that Veve wanted to give up or thought things were getting hard, she thought of the kids.

Not just Jakiah and Jeremiah, who she wants to set a good example for.

But that 10 year old girl who fell in love with netball and who saw a team on TV decked out in her favourite colour.

“I only started playing because my sister started playing and then once I played and then saw it on TV … my favourite colour was purple,” she said.

“So I saw this purple team playing on TV and I was like, ‘I want to play for them’.

“So it’s been my dream ever since I was 10.”

Winning a place in the side in 2016 and being part of a premiership side at just 20 was “kind of easy”.

“I was young then. But then to have my two kids and get married and being an adult and mature now, to get back into the team it’s kind of like a dream on top of the dream.

“It’s been a crazy journey but it’s definitely paid off and it’s been worth the wait.”

And it shows her boys the value of working for a dream.

“I just felt like I wasn’t finished with (the Firebirds) yet,” she said.

“To have my kids and my husband (now), I wanted to go back and play as a mum and have another season with them.

“So now I feel like I’ve achieved that and my next goal was just to get court time and play well.”

It’s certainly something Veve is doing.

Hulita Veve has taken the court at every game this season. Picture: Jenny Evans/Getty Images for Netball Australia.

She’s taken the court every week for the Firebirds through the opening five rounds of the season and with captain Kim Ravaillion on a reduced load while she recovers from off-season back surgery, Veve played the entire 60 minutes in the midcourt in the first three games.

“I never expected any minutes and I was just happy to be out there – I’m grateful for every second that I get on the court,” she said.

“Coming off in the Vixens game and then coming off again in the Perth game, I was a little bit down.

“But then I had to remind myself to be grateful for any minute, so I’m just happy to be out there whenever I am and if I’m on the bench, I’m just still playing my part.”

Living the dream

Veve has made a strong impact for the Firebirds, taking five intercepts and notching 10 deflections in the first five rounds as part of a trio that started the season as a largely unheralded defensive unit but is quickly winning respect across the league.

With Diamonds defender Ruby Bakewell-Doran and ‘keeper Remi Kamo, Veve is part of a Firebirds unit that is ramping up pressure on opposition attacks and causing many of them to crack.

“I work with Ruby and Remi at the back and my job isn’t necessarily to get intercepts but it’s just to apply pressure out the front for them to get that intercept, so I look at that as being my role,” she said.

“It’s completely different to playing at the Sapphire (Queensland state league) level where I just can go and look for intercepts but at this level, I just can’t afford to do that, I just apply pressure for the rest of my team.”

It’s something that isn’t going unnoticed.

Hulita Veve is quickly making an impact for the Firebirds across the first five rounds. Picture: Jenny Evans/Getty Images for Netball Australia.

Former Firebird and Diamonds defender Sharon Finnan-White paid credit to Veve for creating the pressure that allowed Bakewell-Doran and Kamo to create havoc in the circle in the Queenslanders’ extra-time loss to the NSW Swifts.

“Throughout the first five segments (four quarters plus the first period of extra-time) that they played, they had Hulita out there and Macy (Gardner) out there doing a lot of hard work for them and that makes it so much easier.”

The Firebirds suffered a 36-goal drubbing at the hands of West Coast Fever last Friday night in a tough match for the visitors.

There was one upside for Veve though. And it was more important than any game of netball.

“When the original draw came out, I was supposed to play on Mother’s Day,” she said.

“Being all the way in Perth, I was a bit sad but then your game got changed to the Friday night.

“So yeah, it was really excited to be home on Mother’s Day.

“It ended up being an eight-day road trip, so that was a really tough week for me.

“So when I got home and saw them running down (to greet me) at the airport, it was that was really special.

“They’re my ‘why’, so I’m grateful to have them.”

Originally published as Firebirds’ mature age recruit Hulita Veve making an impact after almost giving up on netball career