Almanac Netball: ‘Netball attack players are a protected species.’

 

 

Olivia ‘Liv’ Lewis was always going to be a sports star, and I’m not saying that only because she is my wife’s great-niece.

Liv plays netball for the Melbourne Vixens, so on Saturday we drove down from country South Australia to watch her team compete against the Adelaide Thunderbirds. It was going to be a terrific contest.

The Vixens are presently sitting on the top of the Suncorp Super Netball Competition ladder and the Thunderbirds needed to beat them to move closer to their first finals appearance since 2013.

In our small support group was Liv’s grandma Dulcie, Aunties Vicki and Marlene (my wife), and me – and I think our first shock was the amount of noise made by a roaring auditorium, baying for any Vixen mistake and a Thunderbird victory.

 

The support team: Marlene, Vicki and Dulcie

 

It’s fair to say that compared to most we barracked very quietly, made more difficult by the fact that both Vicki and Dulcie are excitable characters with naturally nice, but boisterous voices. And, of course, this was their precious blood relation under pressure and intimidation down on the centre court.

More challenging still was my wife, Marlene. She was a very good netball player in her day and, like Liv, a defender. I know from previous experience that she carries two large netball chunk-sized chips on her broad shoulders.

Firstly. That netball’s attack players are a protected species. The rules, or so my wife says, are designed for them. In fact, the whole game, Marlene would add, is designed for them. All they have to do is take up a position, jump, grab the ball, stick out their bottoms to protect a larger space, then shoot. Touch them, contact is called, they take a step closer to the ring – and you get to watch on.

The second problem is that the GSs and GAs tend to be so tall. Romelda Aiken, Caitlin Bassett, Susan Fuhrmann and Jhaniele Fowler (Liv’s former teammate) are all 1.96m (6’4”). Goal Shooters Shimona Nelson (1.95m) and Donelle Wallam (1.93m) are not much shorter. Add that to their wingspan and when they finally shoot, the netball ring seems but a few feet away. Often the midcourt players running the ball down court just lob the ball anywhere near the goalpost and voila!

 

In case all Goal Attacks and Shooters of the world are now quietly simmering, I didn’t quite see it that way. Like Liv and her partners in defence, Thunderbird’s Jamaican defensive circle duo Shamera Stirling and Latanya Wilson were outstanding and made their Vixens pair work very hard for every point. I always quietly chuckle when they describe netball as a non-contact sport. All of those players will be inspecting their bruises this morning.

It might cost a marriage, but I feel I need to be fair and mention a few anomalies from my partner. Marlene still barracks according to the rules she played under. When I gained the courage to mention this, she replied, “They haven’t changed that much!” And just so you don’t think it’s totally a one-sided competition between the attack and defence, she was heard to say at one stage: “When I played Goal Defence, I knew all the tricks!”

When watching another great-niece Zoe Hoffrichter play as a defender in a recent Grand Final, Marlene grumbled for most of the 60 minutes. I’m not sure how many times she said, “It’s just not fair! Zoe should have got the free! That girl bumped her first!”

Liv Lewis fell in love with netball from the moment she started playing at age seven with the Bandits Netball Club in Rockingham.

Born to a tall, sport-encouraging Sandra (Mum) and Jim, a dad who played AFL Masters footy for Western Australia and South Australia and represented Australia in one international test against the Ireland Veterans, all 5 siblings played a variety of sports early and all-year round. They were all exceptional.

When my wife and I stayed with them in Wellard (40kms south of Perth), Western Australia, there were always baskets to shoot and footballs to be kicked. In fact, balls of all description whistled around the yard. Getting the kids to the different games was a weekly study in logistics. Their minibus could only travel in one direction at any one time, so I remember our car being brought into the puzzle. This weekly ritual was normal for the Lewis family. When necessary, Dad Jim would get up at 4am to drive Liv to netball training before heading to work himself.

Liv was always tall, and I noticed that Jim had taped a $10 note to the ceiling of their large lounge. That’s not normally done, so when I inquired the family said, “That’s for Livvy. She can only have it if she can snatch it from a standing jump.” I think all the daughters were giving it a shot as they passed through that room.

 

 

Growing to her 184cm (a fraction over 6 foot) height, Liv’s natural tendency was to anticipate, defend and rebound. She settled instinctively into the Goal Keeper – Goal Defence positions.

Liv joined West Coast Fever as a training partner in 2017 and was a member of Western Sting’s Australian Netball League championship-winning team and earning their MVP award.

We made the journey to Adelaide when Liv came across to South Australia with the WA team to play in the Under 19 State Championships and she often came up against taller opponents. But with her total concentration, combative but fair approach, her spring and speed, she took back with her the Tournament Champion Award.

Her star would continue to rise. In 2018, she won a premiership with the Coastal Sharks in the West Australian Netball League, was named MVP in that game, won the Club’s MVP Award and dominated WANL to be named the Jill McIntosh Medallist. She debuted for West Coast Fever in Round 1 of the 2019 season against (ironically) the Adelaide Thunderbirds.

‘Shooting Stars’ empowers Aboriginal girls and women across Western and South Australia to make informed choices about their education and employment journey, helping them ‘shoot for the stars’. Liv got involved in this program at Leonora where she was blown away by the impact of it. She went with 3 more established West Coast Fever stars, and the media reported: “It’s wonderful to see Olivia, who is new to the team, embracing Shooting Stars. Olivia is only 20 years of age, and the girls can really relate to her.”

 

It would have been a big decision for Liv to make the trip across this huge country to play for the Vixens. I’m sure she would have missed home at the start. Who wouldn’t if they were part of the loving and caring Lewis family?

But what I admire more than anything in Liv is her resilience. I’m not sure how anyone can spend so much time trying to follow the ball approaching out of one eye, whilst trying to negate and block another person with the other, whist continually being tricked and manoeuvred out of position … without losing their cool! Her level of enthusiasm and energy out on court never wanes. In the unfair world of netball that she lives in, she doesn’t complain.

I think we ended up barracking for Liv’s team. I’m sorry South Australia for this treachery, but as we were nearly the only people there out of thousands who could be heard clapping when the Vixens scored, they needed us more.  It was a terrific game. The lead see-sawed and we were surprised that in the end the Vixens won 51-47, due to a comeback 13-5 last quarter.

Marlene was correct when she said during the evening with seriousness, “The winner will be the team with more goals than the other!”

At the end of the game we tried vainly to move down to centre court to say hello to Liv. She saw us from a distance, and we waved and gestured affectionately. But no explanation to the Adelaide Entertainment officials that we had Liv’s grandmother and aunties here and just wanted to greet our granddaughter and niece worked as we were sort of swept out of the building in a military-style operation.

However, huge congratulations to all who organised the event. It was heart-warming to see so many families and young kids there. And hats off to all of the netballers. How you keep that energy up for so long is beyond me.

 

 

Images courtesy of Melbourne Vixens, Andy Thurlow, Jim Lewis, West Coast Fever.

 

To read more by Andy Thurlow click here.

 

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Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

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