Collingwood Magpies star Geva Mentor lashes out over club pulling out of Super Netball

The Collingwood Magpies banded together to deliver a near-victory against a resurgent Sunshine Coast Lightning with captain Geva Mentor, imploring for ‘commonsense to prevail’ after the club’s demise was confirmed this week.

Speaking to media before the match, netball and AFLW legend Ash Brazill, who announced her retirement earlier this season, said she’s had trouble finding the words to comfort her teammates. 

Jamaican Shimona Nelson for example, could soon find herself with visa issues.

The Magpies went down to the Lightning by just four points, days after the AFL powerhouse confirmed they would be withdrawing from the Super Netball competition.

After the match, Mentor implored for organisers to sort the situation, because there literally are ‘lives at stake’.

Dejected Collingwood players, pictured after the side’s loss to the Lightning on Saturday, have been left picking up the pieces after the club pulled out of Super Netball

Magpies players such as Shimona Nelson (left, pictured with fellow Jamaican players (L-R) Latanya Wilson, Jodi-Ann Ward of the Magpies and Shamera Sterling) may have visa issues after the club’s demise

‘I want commonsense to prevail. I want everyone to get in a room and put egos aside and just nut this out,’ she said. 

‘There are lives at stake now. It’s people who have to pay mortgages, who don’t know where their next income is coming from. We have a whole lot of people who will be unemployed.’

Potential visa problems for overseas stars was one issue Mentor said would be incredibly difficult for players to deal with.  

‘It is so hard for international players who have visa connected to where they are playing,’ she said. 

‘So what are they to do now? They have got to uproot when they have just been able to settle here for the last three or four years. It is really tricky.’

Magpies skipper Geva Mentor (left, pictured competing with Donnell Wallam earlier this season) implored organisers to sort the situation out because ‘there are lives at stake’

The loss was a mere blip in the storyline of Collingwood’s tumultuous season.

In the opening match of First Nations’ Round, Magpies started energetically, leading by seven at half time. But their consistency crumbled as it has done for much of the season, with the lead evaporating in the third. 

Lightning exploited this while applying vice-like defence and tidier attack, taking a three-goal lead into the final break.

Collingwood found their fight and managed to bring the match back level with less than two-minutes remaining. However, match MVP, Steph Wood delivered a supershot giving the home side breathing room.

Diamond Sophie Garbin had the right of reply at the other end, but delivered an airball instead, as her teary coach Nicole Richardson watched on. 

Lightning were able to close out the match with a four goal victory: their second in nine rounds.

Magpies legend Ash Brazill passes during the club’s heartbreaking four-point loss to the Sunshine Coast on Saturday

As dramatic as the seesawing nature of the game was, it was nothing compared to the off-court storyline that played out this week. 

Collingwood announced they would not be renewing their Super Netball license at season’s end.

To complicate matters, Super Netball’s broadcast contract is reliant on an eight-club competition, meaning that until a new licensee is found, all 80 athletes, their coaches and support staff find themselves with uncertainty.

With their careers hanging in the balance, many Magpies’ athletes put out performances worthy of the best Hollywood casting agent, all in the hopes of catching the eye of Super Netball’s newest coach, whoever that may be.

Some athletes, like Diamond Garbin, are all but certain to find new contracts, but others, like Molly Jovic, will be carrying doubt for the next few months. 

Though, in her 50th national league match, Jovic more than proved her wares, conceding a tidy three turnovers and collecting one intercept.

If one positive comes out of this licensing saga, it’s the camaraderie between players. 

For the two hours of match play, Lightning and Magpies were competitors, but after the final whistle, they banded together to warm down, interact with fans and then share a meal.

There will be tough and uncertain times for Magpies players in the weeks and months ahead after the club pulled out of Super Netball

After the game Sunshine Coast and Collingwood players came together as a show of solidarity

That community-mindedness is something which Mentor highlighted as one of ‘great things’ to come out of all the mess.

‘As soon as the news broke, netball as a community put their arms around us. We really felt that love from all of the other franchises, CEOs, players and even from overseas as well. It is one thing that is beautiful about out sport,’ she said.

Time is not on Netball Australia’s side. 

There are strong cases for why they need to lock in a licensee sooner rather than later: the stalled CPA and TPA negotiations, the threat of losing talent to other competitions whose signing windows close soon and, of course, the Netball World Cup.

The latter is arguably the most pressing as it is a competition for which we don’t want athletes with split focuses. 

And while CEO Kelly Ryan has said they will be looking to sign the new club as soon as possible, one would argue that a July deadline should be enforced.