Players the ‘nets won’t forget’: Part 2

By Matt Fotia 

 Netball is entering a new era, as more leagues join the professional space, and the game goes to another level of analysis, conditioning and performance. 

But there will always be players from the generation before who did it all without sport science and full-time contracts. 

Players who pure lovers of the game still remember fondly  

Players who left a lasting impression on the netball community. 

Players who will never leave our minds.  

These are the players the nets won’t forget. 

Serena Guthrie 

Guthrie spent just two seasons on Australian shores, but made her presence known across her short stay. 

Standing at 180cm, Guthrie was a true workhorse in the midcourt for the GIANTS, with her game built around her speed, athleticism and ability to pull off big intercepts. 

Signed from New Zealand outfit the Northern Mystics, Guthrie made an immediate impact at the GIANTS, helping them push for premiership glory in her first season.  

While the GIANTS went down to the Lightning in the 2017 decider, Guthrie didn’t finish the season empty handed, winning the GIANTS club MVP award and a spot on the SSN Team of the Year bench. 

The GIANTS finished as Minor Premiers in 2018, and Guthrie was in the thick of it again, this time locking away the centre spot in the SSN Team of the Year. 

A DJ off the court (and an MBE) Guthrie left these shores to return home for the 2019 season but left behind a lasting legacy with the SSN community. 

Peta Squire 

Another South Australian name netball lovers will never forget. 

A part of the Adelaide Garville side who routinely challenged for the Mobil Super League crown, Squire would go on to become a major player in the uber consistent Adelaide Thunderbirds side of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. 

The 180cm defender played more than 150 games for the Thunderbirds, won back-to-back titles in 1998-99, played in six successive grand finals and was named in the Team of the Year on four occasions. 

Squire co-captained the Thunderbirds from 2004 to 2006 before retiring her Thunderbirds dress at the end of the 2007 season. 

She wasn’t finished though, coming out of retirement to play for the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic in the ANZ Championship in 2010 and 2011. 

She finished her incredible domestic career with more than 175 games, seven Grand Final appearances, five minor premierships, four Team of the Year selections and two premierships to her name. 

Mo’onia Gerrard 

An absolute weapon. 

The powerful defender burst onto the domestic netball scene in 1999, claiming the Commonwealth Bank Trophy’s Best New Talent award and didn’t look back from there. 

Gerrard spent five seasons with the Sydney Sandpipers in the CBT, winning the ‘Player’s Player’ award in 2003, before moving to the Swifts following the Sandpipers removal from the league.  

Gerrard spent the next four seasons with the Swifts and won three premierships (2004, 2006 and 2007) before moving to the Adelaide Thunderbirds at the beginning of the ANZ Championship era, where she played for three years (2008-10) and won the title in 2010. 

She returned to the Swifts in 2011 and was named captain for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, when she called time on her domestic career after more than 13 years at the top of the game. 

Natasha Chokljat-Lew 

A versatile mid-court weapon, Chokljat-Lew is one of the finest ever Tasmanian Netballing products, winning 29 national caps to go with more than 150 national league games. 

First called into the Melbourne Phoenix squad following the retirement of Simone McKinnis, the hard-working wing defence went on to play in four premierships with the Phoenix, with 2005 her biggest year when she paired a premiership with the Player’s Player of the Year award. 

Tenacious on court, Chokljat-Lew continued to develop her game and finished her career with the ability to play across all three mid-court positions and scored one more domestic premiership with the Vixens in 2008. 

Much loved by the netball community, Chokljat-Lew was named a Netball Victoria ‘Legend of the Game’ and inducted into the Netball Tasmania Hall of Fame in 2019. 

Julie Prendergast 

Prendergast made her national league debut with the Melbourne Phoenix at the ripe old age of 16 and never looked back. 

One of the defenders of her generation, Prendergast played more than 150 domestic games across her career, winning accolades along the way. 

She was a member of that Phoenix team from 2002 to 2006, winning the ‘Best New Talent’ award in 2004, before spending the 2007 season with the Melbourne Kestrels. 

Prendergast was an inaugural Vixen when the ANZ Championship era begun, and stayed with the club until 2012, winning another premiership in 2009, before moving across the pond to play with the Northern Mystics for two seasons. 

Prendergast returned to Australian shores in 2015 to play with the NSW Swifts before signing off on an incredible career.