Suncorp Super Netball: Former Collingwood players are at risk of missing contracts when signing window opens
It has already been a brutal year for ex-Collingwood netball players and, writes LINDA PEARCE, it could get worse.
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As if 2023 has not been challenging enough for the players and staff of the dismantled Collingwood netball program, now this: despite the signing window being scheduled to open for the seven remaining teams and the new Melbourne-based addition it may, for several former Magpies, remain permanently closed.
Officially, theoretically and wholly unrealistically, Super Netball clubs are only able to enter into non-binding discussions with their own squad members, the former Collingwood athletes and players who were not contracted to rival SSN outfits last season.
At least until Monday. By then, as Australia wakes to the news of the Diamonds’ World Cup fate and the 15-strong squad enters holiday mode, the hope is that, back home, both the team participation and collective bargaining agreements will finally be signed, the salary cap settled and the contracting can begin.
The biggest move is tipped to involve Diamonds’ standout Courtney Bruce, who appears certain to head for a Sunshine Coast reunion with former West Coast assistant Belinda Reynolds, fresh from a successful first season in charge of the Lightning.
While Bruce’s name has been a regular in previous trade speculation, the understanding is that this is — or soon will be — the real deal, meaning the Fever captain will follow the path of ex-teammate Caitlin Bassett in what was one of the key moves to emerge from SSN’s inaugural free-for-all back in 2016.
As they were then, and have been since, all players are out of contract. As then, there will be movement, and change, for reasons both personal and professional.
Not on the same scale as when three new teams were admitted to a competition in which there are still only 80 contracts, and no cap on international recruits. But, seven years later, neither is there the extended underpinning competition needed to bridge the widening gap with the various state leagues. But more on that another day.
For the Collingwood 10, the club’s demise represents an extra layer of uncertainty, given their collective state of homelessness, and comes amid last weekend’s admission from club CEO Craig Kelly that closing the netball program had “blown up the lives of these amazing athletes and coaches and everyone’’. Yep. Sure did.
Indeed, the fallout is such that several experienced player managers believe that only Diamonds’ shooter Sophie Garbin and Jamaican defender Jodi-Ann Ward appear guaranteed of securing SSN contracts in 2024.
While Ward’s keenest suitors are the Giants, who have lost stalwart April Brandley, there has been other interest shown in the ball-winning dual best-and-fairest who can also cover wing defence.
For Garbin, the imminent appointment of Adelaide assistant Tracey Neville as coach of the new franchise — to be owned by Craig Hutchison’s Sports Entertainment Group, but operated by Netball Australia until January — may be a key domino.
Should Neville’s English protege Eleanor Cardwell decide to join her in Melbourne’s south-east, would Garbin prefer to go elsewhere, given she played out-of-position at goal attack in the past two underwhelming domestic years and we continue to see internationally just how formidable the natural goal shooter can be?
If the wretchedly unlucky Sam Wallace does not remain a Swift after effectively missing two full years as a result of her knee reconstruction and various complications, and Briony Akle opts to look longer-term than a renewal of the insurance policy that was Romelda Aiken-George, does Garbin return to Sydney to partner Helen Housby?
Or, despite what is understood to be some earlier reluctance, would she be open to an approach from the Vixens, who are also reportedly eyeing South African Elmere van der Berg as an option to replace NZ-bound Rahni Samason.
Definitely gone are co-captains Geva Mentor (UK Superleague) and Ash Brazill (retirement). Still hopeful are young goaler Nyah Allen, who has been sidelined with a serious musculoskeletal condition that required chest surgery, and back-up defender Jacqui Newton, with starting centre Molly Jovic perhaps most likely to be thrown a lifeline.
Which leaves the high-profile Kelsey Browne, a top-two finisher in the past two club championships who will be 32 by round one of next season, and the high-scoring Shimona Nelson, who will be 25.
Both would seem to still have currency in the Super Netball marketplace, but several insiders have questioned whether the duo will be offered new deals or left to seek contracts overseas.
Browne, the two-time Lightning premiership player and former Diamond, plays almost exclusively at wing attack, and may be competing for a midcourt bib with the likes of talented young Hannah Mundy — an obvious target for Neville if the future Diamond can be prised from the Vixens by the prospect of more minutes.
Nelson, second only to Jhaniele Fowler for scoring volume in the regular season, is regarded as slightly one-dimensional by teams looking for more mobile and versatile options for their lean 10-player squads, and nor is she a strong two-point threat.
Former Pie Chris Howley has been slated to head high performance at the new club, while ex-coach Nicole Richardson, in Cape Town as Stacey Marinkovich’s No. 2, is believed to be open to returning to an assistant’s role in Super Netball, albeit with a preference to remain in her home state. So that might fit nicely.
Other questions include: is Tippah Dwan headed back to Queensland, should, as expected, Gretel Bueta not return from her second stint of maternity leave? Is Donnell Wallam happy in the Firebirds’ environment? Or happy enough?
Do the Vixens need more than just a minor tweak of their attacking circle to return to premiership contention? And would the domino effect of a Bruce signing mean Kadie-Ann Dehaney seeks a move to Perth – where Ward and England’s Fran Williams have also been mentioned as defensive possibilities – or elsewhere?
Last year, when the majority of players were completing two-year deals — 2022 grand finalists the Fever and Vixens made just one list alteration between them, for example — the status quo was largely retained.
And while mass club-swapping is rarely the netball way, the demise of one team and hastily-conceived addition of another will contribute over the coming weeks to stress, hard decisions and disappointment for some and welcome opportunity for others.
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Originally published as Suncorp Super Netball: Former Collingwood players are at risk of missing contracts when signing window opens
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