GAME-DAY SATURDAY

“We’re free-rein to do whatever we want – shopping, time with family, ensure we have our nutrition plan in place. Friday is the last time we train. If it’s an away game, we train in the morning for an hour – a captain’s run. It’s so we can go to the venue where we’re going to play, familiarise ourselves with the changing rooms, the court, and because we’ve travelled, obviously just get our legs loosened, go through our match-day warm-up, pass the ball around, let the shooters have a few shots at goal. If there’s anything specific we individually want to work on, we can grab a chat with the coach and go and spend ten minutes on it – break into a bit of a sweat and that’s it. When we’re at home, because we know our home court and we haven’t travelled and we don’t feel the effects of fatigue, we just rock up to the changing room about an hour and a half

before the game.”

AN AUSSIE DIAMOND AMONGST DIAMONDS

“Preparing with the Diamonds is completely different to Firebirds duty. There are a lot more court work components – you’re on the court every single day. For the last World Champs here we had six weeks to prepare together – some build-ups are even shorter. Last year the team management started something new by taking a squad of 15 away and every single week they’d re-select a team of 12. Everyone is vying for a position in that 12, let alone a position in the starting side.

“You learn so much in such a short time because you’re around the best netball players in the world. If you’re not learning anything in that environment, there’s something wrong with you, because even the best can learn something. The older, more experienced players can definitely learn things from the new girls coming through. You need to know that learning never stops.”

– James Smith

Photos by Krystle Wright