So as everyone knows I’m a mad supporter of many sports but I have to say that there’s one sport I’m passionate most above others- and that sport is netball.

Truth be told, it’s hard to explain what exactly is the appealing point of netball above all others but I’ll do my best to put into words the attraction.

My introduction to netball was rocky at the time; at the time I was supporting Collingwood in the AFL and at the time of the folding of the ANZ (Trans-Tasman) championship and introduction of the Suncorp Super Netball [SSN] it was announced that Collingwood was getting a franchise in the new competition along with the Melbourne Storm (Sunshine Coast Lightning). Knowing that my mum is/was a massive netball fan- supporting the Melbourne Vixens- I managed to sign my mum up to a Collingwood netball membership along with myself, because her favourite player Caitlin Thwaites had jumped ship to them. While the first season wasn’t too bad, the conduct of Collingwood netball left a bad tastes in our mouths and we jumped ship back to the Melbourne Vixens.

Caitlin Thwaites with the 2020 SSN championship trophy.

Disappointed by the Magpies, truth be told Mum was buoyed to be back supporting the Vixens- a team that’s been around since 2008 and formed by the merging of the Melbourne Phoneix and the Melbourne Kestrels franchises in the old CBA Competition (sensing a pattern here?)

I will have to admit that it didn’t take me long to realise how amazing the Vixens are and how severely underrated elite netball is as a “legitimate” sporting competition.

The vixens have always had the motto we make champions and you can see the accuracy it is- some of the best players in the world have been developed through the Vixens and Netball Victoria. Players such as Kate Moloney and the aforementioned Thwaites are just two examples of current players who have came through that pathway.