Giants Netball

Giants Netball (stylised as GIANTS Netball) is an Australian netball team in Sydney which competes in the premier Australian league, Suncorp Super Netball.[1] The team represents the Greater Western Sydney region of New South Wales, as well as Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory. The team was formed in 2016, during the disbanding of the ANZ Championship. Giants Netball is owned by Netball NSW and is aligned with the elite Australian Football League club, the Greater Western Sydney Giants. The Giants play most home matches at the 10,500 seat Ken Rosewall Arena, which it has called home since 2020.

Giants Netball
Founded2016 (2016)
Based inSydney
RegionsGreater Western Sydney & Canberra
Home venueKen Rosewall Arena (10,500)
AIS Arena (5,000)
Head coachJulie Fitzgerald
CaptainJo Harten
LeagueSuncorp Super Netball
2019 placing5th
Websitewww.giantsnetball.com.au

Uniform

History

Following the dissolving of the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship competition in 2016, Netball Australia announced the creation of a new national Netball league, which would feature the five original Australian teams and three additional teams. In May 2016, Netball Australia confirmed that Netball NSW (in a strategic alliance with the Greater Western Sydney Giants AFL club) was one of three preferred license holders for the new teams.[2][3]

Giants Netball made their first stride as a professional sporting club when they announced former assistant coach of the Australia national team Julie Fitzgerald as the inaugural head coach of the team.[4] The club then began assembling a strong squad over the coming months, a process which culminated in the appointment of Kimberlee Green as captain, a player with 72 national team caps.[5]

2017-20: Successive finals

The 2017 Suncorp Super Netball season saw the debut of Giants Netball. The club was struck with a season-ending injury to captain Kimberlee Green in the early part of the season. Green was later replaced by Sarah Wall.[6] Despite this setback, the Giants would finish third (out of eight teams) at the end of the regular season, winning ten of their fourteen games and defeating each of the other seven teams in the competition.[7] They then defeated Collingwood and Melbourne Vixens in successive finals before falling well short in the Grand Final to Sunshine Coast Lightning.[8][9] The following season the Giants finished first on the regular season ladder and won the minor premiership, though they crashed out the finals series in straight sets. Serena Guthrie, Rebecca Bulley and Susan Pettitt (three starting players) all departed the club at the end of the season, with Bulley and Pettitt retiring from the game and Guthrie returning to play in England.[10] The following season saw major transition, with the club signing Diamonds captain Caitlin Bassett but narrowly missing out on finals. Inaugural captain Kimberlee Green announced her retirement after 17 seasons in elite competition.[11]

The club moved home matches to the newly redeveloped Ken Rosewall Arena in the 2020 season.

Players
2020 Giants Netball roster
PlayersCoaching staff
Nat. Name Position(s) DoB Height
Kiera Austin GA, WA, GS 26 August 1997 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Caitlin Bassett GS 23 May 1988 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)
Jo Harten (c) GS, GA 21 March 1989 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Maddie Hay C, WD 11 April 1995 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Kristiana Manu'a (vc) GK, GD, WD 3 September 1995 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Matilda McDonell GD, GK 22 June 2000 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Teigan O'Shannassy GK, GD 14 April 1999 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Amy Parmenter WD, C 1 August 1997 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Sam Poolman GK, GD 4 March 1991 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in)
Jamie-Lee Price WD, C 10 January 1996 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
Head coach
  • Julie Fitzgerald


Notes
  • (c) – Captain
  • (cc) – Co-captain
  • (vc) – Vice-captain
  • – Injury / maternity leave
  • (TRP) – Temporary Replacement Player
Player profiles: Team website Last updated: 17/09/2019[12]

Competitive record
Season Standings Regular season Finals Head coach
W D L
Giants Netball
2017 2nd 10 0 4 Won Elimination Final (Magpies, 52–51)
Won Preliminary Final (Vixens, 65–57)
Lost Grand Final (Lightning, 48–65)		 Julie Fitzgerald
2018 1st 10 1 3 Lost Semi Final (Fever, 57–63)
Lost Preliminary Final (Lightning, 50–59)		 Julie Fitzgerald
2019 5th 7 1 6 DNQ Julie Fitzgerald
Regular season 27 2 13 1 Minor Premiership
Finals 2 0 3 0 Super Netball titles

Venues

Giants Netball play all but one regular season home matches at the 10,500 seat Ken Rosewall Arena, located in the Olympic Park precinct. The arena underwent a redevelopment prior to the 2020 season to accommodate netball matches. Since its inception the club has played one home match at the AIS Arena in Canberra. Prior to 2020 the club split home matches between the Qudos Bank Arena (18,000) and State Sports Centre (5,000). The Giants training facilities are also located in the Olympic Park at the Netball Central facility and at the WestConnex Centre, which is shared with the club's AFL teams.

ANL team

For the first three years, the team was affiliated with a reserves team, known as the Canberra Giants, based in both the cities of Canberra and in Sydney, in the second-tier Australian Netball League. The team partially acted as a development squad beneath the senior team and was established in 2017, replacing the Canberra Darters which were the region's former ANL team.[13][14] The squad comprised a mixture of Giants Netball training partners and elite netball talent based in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).[15] In late 2019, Netball ACT scrapped the affiliation with the Giants and established their own stand-alone team.[16]

Following the departure with Netball ACT, the club announced the creation of the Giants Netball Academy. Up to 20 athletes will form the Academy and the club will draw on those athletes to field sides in the Netball NSW Premier League and the Australian Netball League.[17]

See also

References
  1. "Netball team GIANTS to open season at home". Giants Netball. 26 October 2016.
  2. "Netball Australia confirms new eight-team division and bumper broadcasting deal". ABC News. 19 May 2016.
  3. "The Story of GIANTS Netball". Giants Netball. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
  4. "Fitzgerald excited by new team venture". Giants Netball. 25 October 2016.
  5. "Green appointed inaugural captain". Giants Netball. 17 December 2016.
  6. "Wall named as permanent replacement". Giants Netball. 20 April 2017.
  7. "Giants beat competition heavyweights Melbourne Vixens to go top of Super Netball". The Daily Telegraph. Australian Associated Press. 14 May 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  8. "GIANTS pip Pies to Preliminary Finals spot". GIANTS Netball. 3 June 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  9. "Sunshine Coast Lightning put on masterclass over Giants to claim title". ESPN. 17 June 2017. Archived from the original on 17 June 2017.
  10. "Bulley joins Giants netball departures". ESPN. 19 August 2018.
  11. "Kim Green Announces Retirement From Netball". Super Netball. 21 August 2019.
  12. "High Five for Giants Netball". Giants Netball. 17 September 2019.
  13. "Canberra Giants homepage". Netball New South Wales. Archived from the original on 2 October 2018.
  14. "Canberra GIANTS". Giants Netball. Archived from the original on 21 August 2019.
  15. "Caberra GIANTS ready to walk tall in 2018". Netball Australia. 27 April 2018. Archived from the original on 2 October 2018.
  16. "Netball ACT to introduce stand alone Australian Netball League team". Canberra Times. 11 September 2019.
  17. "GIANTS Netball Launch New Academy". Giants Netball. 9 September 2019.
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