If for any reason someone was to question the value of the Netball Australia and Netball Queensland PacificAus Sports partnership – they need to speak to one of three people.
The aim of the Athlete Immersion program is to ‘create pathways for emerging Pacific athletes to benefit from High Performance coaching and training, leadership development and education opportunities.
Ask Netball Queensland Pacific Partnership Coordinator, Emma Wakefield, and she will tell you it ticks all those boxes. She will also tell you she believes it could achieve much more.
“This experience will be something they hold dear and will never forget,” Wakefield said.
“This program has the ability to transform the lives of many, to open doors and ideas for talented athletes, and I hope to see it expand in scale to include more Pacific nations and athletes in future.”
Echoing the thoughts of Wakefield are the two Fijian athletes that took part in the program for about the past five months, Ema Mualuvu and Matila Vocea.
The pair fully immersed themselves in a wide range of opportunities both on and off the court.
From playing in the Born to Shine series, featuring in the HART Sapphire Series with the Northern Rays and attending the ‘Connecting through Sport’ Multicultural Australia Gala Day – they did it all.
“It was a great experience for me to be able to challenge myself with some of the fast and fit athletes, knowing that it will change a lot the way I play,” Mualuvu explained.
“I’d love to be part of the program for a full season. That would be one way to make it much better, to experience the full timeline of the HART Sapphire Series.
“And I would love to see more athletes from Fiji have this opportunity to be part of the program. They will learn and experience so much and they can share it with their local communities.”
One of the other exciting highlights for the duo was going inside the inner sanctum of the Queensland Firebirds where they trained with the Super Netball team.
During that time, they were exposed to the life of a high-performance athlete with a focus on applied High Performance behaviours in training, nutrition and recovery.
Listening to the athletes talk about their experience, it is clear they have both walked away more focussed towards achieving their netball dreams.
In addition to the program, Mualuvu and Vocea continued to live their normal day-to-day lives in Australia as well, which included their university studies and driving lessons.
“Some things I have learnt while working closely with the High Performance team and training with the Firebirds is that everyone is accountable for one another and everyone works on a tight ship and it's very refreshing to see,” Vocea said.
“I believe while playing in the Born to Shine series I tapped into a different game style, and it changed the way I think about the game and how I need to better myself for the game.
“I would love to see more athletes get opportunities like this because it gives us an idea of how big Netball is.”
As part of the Australian Governments 2021-23 PacificAus Sports program, Netball Australia will continue delivering positive outcomes in Pacific and providing opportunities for athletes to excel.
