TWO years under Victoria’s strict COVID-19 lockdown regulations, including six months of living alone as a 19-year-old, inspired Ella Spencer’s move north to the bright sunshine and blue skies of Brisbane.
The resilient and tenacious TAE Aerospace Jets HART Premier Netball League (HPNL) Sapphire defender had just completed her final year of high school when Covid landed on Australian shores and any personal ambitions were placed on a temporary hiatus.
“Two years of lockdown was really tough and I was ready for a change,” Spencer said.
“I moved up to Brisbane by myself, but it was really exciting. I moved up at the same time as Chev Thomson, as we were at the same club in Melbourne and then at the Brisbane East Netball Tigers together.”
A two-year stint at Bond University Bull Sharks, including the 2024 season as Sapphire vice-captain, developed Spencer’s game further yet managing the commute between the Gold Coast and Brisbane wasn’t sustainable.
“I’m based in Brisbane, studying a full-time education degree at The University of Queensland, and working,” Spencer said.
“With all the practicalities, it was getting too hard to balance travel and my time each week. I was trying to balance a lot and I think my netball suffered.”
The now 24-year-old is embracing her first season at her third Sapphire franchise, as her sixth-placed Jets, bolstered by the return of multiple Queensland Firebirds Futures representatives, prepares for a second crack at every HPNL club.
“We’re giving ourselves some grace to progress through the season.” Spencer said.
“Bond was such a close game, Cougars was a close game, even Round 1 against the Titans we could have won. This second half of the season we have no excuses.”
Included in the list of Jets players to come back into the fold from Queensland Firebirds duties are recent Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) debutants Elsa Sif Sandholt and Dani Taylor as well as regular SSN starter Abigail Latu-Meafou.
“Everyone knows the second half of this season will be different,” Spencer said.
“The standard will lift, and we’ll have more depth in our team. It means flexibility and obviously more combinations. There’ll be some new strengths to explore.”
Spencer admitted, as defending champions, the pressure to retain the HPNL Sapphire title is always in the background.
“The girls won last year and they’re hungry for it again,” she said.
“I'm a competitive person so I want that badly as well, that’s the end goal for everyone.”
The Jets’ campaign towards another finals appearance cranks up a gear from this Sunday, when they front up for a rematch against the Brisbane South Wildcats in a Round 8 clash on Nissan Arena’s Showcourt.
“I think this will be a clean slate for us,” Spencer said.
“We lost by 19 (to the Wildcats in Round 3), and not to discredit the Wildcats, but we were a depleted side, missing a lot of players and three of us had just played a full Ruby level game. We’re hungry for that win, and it’ll be a really good start to the second half of the season for us.”
KommunityTV is your home to watch Queensland’s top talents LIVE and exclusive. Two matches each round from the top-flight Sapphire division are being exclusively live streamed on News Corp Australia mastheads, including The Courier-Mail and Gold Coast Bulletin.
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