By Sophie Taylor
Legs. Breathe.
Two words Tippah Dwan uses to calm, compose and instill herself with confidence in big moments.
Trust is important in any team, but no relationship is quite as important as that between a goaler and her arc towards the post.
“I’ve come up with a plan for when I’m going through my shot,” Dwan said.
“The biggest trust is knowing you’ve done the work and using that to build confidence.”
Dwan, now settled back in Queensland after a stint with the Adelaide Thunderbirds in 2022 and 2023, said her time away from home was an enormous growth opportunity and one she did not take lightly.
“Moving out of home for the first time, especially moving interstate without having anyone I knew when I moved to Adelaide,” Dwan said.
“It was a big challenge for me getting my surroundings right, not having many people to go and see when I needed to get away from netball.”
A shy teenager, Dwan preferred to let her netball do the talking.
But strategies she has come up with over the years helped her to connect with like-minded teammates in Adelaide, eventually coming away with a drought-breaking premiership in 2023.
“Finding my voice, finding what helps build those relationships, it doesn't have to be fast, it can be over time,” Dwan said.
“Building relationships at a friendship level, and then we can get deeper, and then that's where you can really naturally get through those hard times together.
“In hindsight, moving was the best thing that I could have done for myself.”
But moving back up to Queensland and her support network has allowed Dwan to thrive even more – even if it was harder to return than expected.
Dwan returned to Queensland in 2024 after time with the Thunderbirds. “It was difficult to come back because I was going to miss all the girls in Adelaide,” she admitted.
“But coming home, I have my support network here, my family and all my friends outside of netball, I also have up here.
“It's been nice to have that bigger circle of people that I can go to, to get away from netball.”
Getting ‘away’ from netball to decompress is key for Dwan.
“The season goes so fast, but it's netball, netball, netball all the time,” she said.
“Going out for dinner with friends outside of netball is really nice, just to talk about something that doesn't involve your work, pretty much!
“I was lucky to have a great roommate when I was down in Adelaide. We kind of knew each other from underage netball, but she wasn’t in the ‘netball’ scene anymore.
“I always had her to go back to when I got home from training or games. She was important for me while I was down there.”
Dwan also admitted the importance of having mentors in your corner – whether formal or informal.
“I have a few mentors that ‘get’ netball but also care about how I'm going as a person,” she said.
“Touching base with them throughout the season, they're good at reaching out to me to see how I'm going.”
Past players are entwined into the Firebirds’ program, connecting each player with a past player.
“I have my past player, Liss, who's been through it all before and is really awesome to catch up with for coffee and just talk,” Dwan said.
“I'm also lucky my partner's an elite athlete as well, so he's good to get a different perspective on things, but from a different sport.
“I'm lucky in that aspect.”
She also referred to recent retiree Kim Ravaillion as an important person to lean on.
“Kim Rav is a good mentor for me. She’s just retired, she's going into a new phase of life,” Dwan said.
“She's someone I can talk to at any time to debrief about netball and life as well.
“I’ll be able to lean on her a lot when I'm finished netball, in the future, because she's set herself up really well post netball career.”
Shifting from a premiership-winning club to one in the middle of a rebuild cannot be easy, but the goal attack says her trust in her teammates comes from building resilience.
“We’re all close, so it's great we can bounce things off each other and also have that relationship where, if something's going wrong, we can talk it out well,” she said.
“You come out stronger in the end.”
HCF wants to inspire netball fans to feel strong and be their healthiest self. That's why we're sitting down with your favourite Super Netball players to talk about overcoming injury, navigating change, resilience and relationship building.
To see more articles and videos or get more information on women’s health topics, visit the HCF Strong Women Health Hub .
