The Lisa Alexander interview: Diamonds captain Liz Watson on leadership, titles and the tough times that shaped her
Diamonds skipper Liz Watson opens up to her first national coach Lisa Alexander about the challenges of leadership, the role models that have shaped her and her deep love of the game.
Netball
Don't miss out on the headlines from Netball. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Diamonds captain Liz Watson has opened up on the challenges of leading the national team through some of the most challenging times in the sport’s history, noting her decisions always come back to what’s best for the group.
Watson, who was appointed permanent leader in 2021 by then new coach Stacey Marinkovich, has been one of the sport’s most successful national captains, winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 before lifting the World Cup in South Africa in 2023.
But as she starts the push for a historic double-double, Watson opens up to her first national coach Lisa Alexander about her beginnings in the sport, her role models and the moments that have shaped her career as a modern great in the sport.
Among those are the tumultuous times around the Hancock Prospecting sponsorship debacle and the poisonous and protracted wage battle with Netball Australia in 2023, with Watson opening up like never before in a revealing interview with her national coach of four years.
RAW BEGINNINGS
Watson first came to my attention as a player Eloise Southby told me a bit about after coaching her at Victoria’s Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School and as a player for Victoria at the junior nationals. I just remember this absolutely powerful wing attack out there.
Just a year after those junior championships though, she was in the big league, making her debut in the then trans-Tasman league for the Vixens in 2014 and winning a premiership in that first season.
“I came in quite late. Elissa Kent announced her pregnancy, so I missed pretty much all of the pre-season,” Watson said of being called into the Vixens’ side.
“My first game was at John Cain Arena - Hisense Arena at the time - and I played in centre against (New Zealand great) Laura Langman.
“It was definitely (being) thrown into the deep end. But in my team, I had Bianca (Chatfield), Geva Mentor, Madi Brown, Cath Cox, it was a team of stars, so I felt like I just took the centre pass, and then I did nothing else.”
It was a lesson for Watson, who hopes at the other end of her career - she made her Diamonds debut in 2016 and hopes to be celebrating a decade of dominance at the Commonwealth Games next year - to be someone the younger players look up to.
“I’ve still got Steph Fretwell, who is an incredible game smarts athlete, but then with Leesa Mi Mi and Reilley Batcheldor, I think they definitely look to me for that guidance, for that voice, for that direction.
“So you definitely transition into that when you’ve been around longer, you’ve had more experience, you’ve had just different experiences as well.”
LEADING THE BEST
Watson is not just a leader at club level though - where she’s actually vice-captain to her former Diamonds deputy Fretwell - she captains the best players in the world after being elected Diamonds permanent captain in 2021, taking over the role from Caitlin Bassett under then-new coach Stacey Marinkovich.
Captaincy is a role she takes extremely seriously.
“You’re put into this role from your peers. They’re the ones who vote you into that position; they’re the ones who put you forward, so you take that really seriously and you really want to do a great job for them,” she said.
Her tenure has been incredibly successful, with the Diamonds regaining the Commonwealth Games and World Cup titles.
But also one of the most tumultuous in recent history, with the players combating Covid hubs, the Hancock Prospecting sponsorship saga and more recently, the poisonous and protracted wage battle with Netball Australia.
Through it all, Watson has been someone the Diamonds looked to for guidance and leadership and a calm and considered voice but she conceded there had been tough times.
“Of course I have a cry (sometimes),” she said.
“You do doubt yourself sometimes, and know that a hard decision is going to potentially upset a party - whether it’s the players, whether it’s our staff, whether it’s Netball Australia.
“You feel like sometimes you know your decisions are going to affect someone - and you don’t want that, you want everyone to love each other, be happy.
“But that’s not elite sport. That’s not elite environment.”
TEAM COMES FIRST
That can be stressful - but Watson always brings it back to the game and the team.
“When I’m feeling like that or getting stressed or wanting to have that cry, to me, it’s like, what I can I do right now is play really well for the team, train really well for the team.
“Let’s just go back to on court, on court, on court.
“That’s something mum said to me from a young kid: ‘Actions speak louder than words’.
“Growing up, I was probably more of a shy, reserved, just in the background, kid playing the sport. And mum said, your actions are speaking louder than your words, so just do that.”
Her actions speak volumes, but having to be the voice of the national team, Watson has also learnt how to speak up.
“I’ve definitely learned how to have difficult conversations, how to manage different views, different opinions,” she said.
“And (what) I think I’m still learning the most is sometimes just trust your gut and just and then just stick to it and believe what you believe and know that that’s the right decision, because you trust yourself.”
LEANING ON MATES
Watson knows too, she doesn’t have to do it all by herself.
Over the past few years, she’s relied on the advice and counsel of others, in good times and bad.
“I think reaching out to different players really helped me,” she said.
“Steph Wood (now Fretwell) was probably my rock throughout the tough times as captain, throughout World Cups and throughout things where it’s not going as smoothly as it may look on the outside, or there’s stuff going on.
“She was someone who would always just say how it is. There’s no fluffing around, this is this is the facts, it’s what we need to do, this is the best thing for the group.
“And I think always bringing it back to what does the team need in this moment,”
Even in the good times, there are plenty of people standing up - and not just in the game-day squad.
The efforts of players like Commonwealth Games reserve Jamie-Lee Price, who along with Donnell Wallam and Ruby Bakewell-Doran helped prepare the Diamonds for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022, and Kate Moloney, Bakewell-Doran and Wallam at the 2023 World Cup, were invaluable.
“The energy that they brought was incredible, especially someone like Kate,” Watson said of her then Vixens co-captain Moloney.
“She was in the team the year before at the Commonwealth Games, then missed out on the World Cup. She could have easily gone the other way and been so negative about the whole situation but she was just incredible.
“And she really helped that group win that gold medal. There’s no doubt about that.”
FAMILY FOCUS
Watson’s leadership style has been shaped as much by the women around her early life, as her netball peers and mentors.
“Mum played netball as well,” Watson said of Manuela, a primary school principal who was at one stage “captain” of the Diamonds parents’ group.
“We’re very, very family orientated. We all live really close to each other. We visit each other all the time and I think she and dad (Neil) come to as much as they can to support me.
“There’s photos of mum and dad in the stands (with their heads in their hands) just watching and wanting the best and I know they’re just overall proud.”
Her nonna is another big supporter, but having moved away from family in Victoria to the Sunshine Coast, where she now plays for the Lightning, she sees less of them than she’d like.
Watson, who is training as a primary school teacher, does have the backing there of fiance Hamish Moore there, a fellow teacher and partner who keeps her calm and grounded and reminded that there is life outside of the netball bubble.
But as she strives to be a rare 100-Test player (she’s currently on 91 caps), Watson remains as much in love with the game as she was when she started as a raw-boned kid and she’s emotional when she talks about what it means to be a Diamond.
“It’s the biggest achievement, and it’s the biggest sense of pride that you can feel in anything,” she said.
“We represent so much more than just the girls who love to play netball. We try to get everyone on board. We try to unite everyone.
“I can’t even really articulate how incredible it is, or what it means, because it’s so much bigger than anything I could ever do, anything I’ll probably ever do in my life.”
More Coverage
Originally published as The Lisa Alexander interview: Diamonds captain Liz Watson on leadership, titles and the tough times that shaped her
T-Birds’ main threat, Vixens’ gamble: Medhurst’s team breakdown
Will the Thunderbirds make it a three-peat? NAT MEDHURST makes her fearless Super Netball season predictions and identifies the pros and cons of every club.
Netball’s hated super shot here to stay after NZ, England introduction
Love it or hate it, the super shot is here to stay after its introduction to the England and NZ leagues this season. And one star is suggesting it could be added to the international game.