Madi collects an MVP to mark her return
WHEN Diamonds midcourter Madi Robinson earned MVP honours on her return from almost two years in the international wilderness she completed one of netball’s great comebacks.
Robinson, however, prefers to see Saturday’s return as just the start of a new era in her sporting career, one she hopes will see her win Commonwealth Games and World Cup medals for Australia in the next three years.
The Melbourne-based specialist wing attack is adamant she has plenty more to give the game — and improvements to be made — as she resurrects an international netball career stalled for almost two years by a knee construction.
The injury cruelly sidelined her for Australia’s home World Cup last year but Robinson said it never entered her mind that her international career was over.
“There was never any doubt in my mind I would be back,’’ said Robinson, whose new goals include the 2018 Commonwealth Games and World Cup a year later.
But she admitted her initial netball comeback to the transTasman league this season wasn’t the dream return she had hoped for.
“The first game back we lost to the Swifts and I was awful. I wanted to cry,’’ said Robinson, whose quick improvement saw her claim the Melbourne Vixens MVP award for the final ANZ Championship.
“I learned then that I had to build my way back. That it wasn’t going to just happen.’’
On Saturday, in Australia’s 25-goal win over South Africa in their Quad series opener in Auckland, the centre-court marshal claimed the MVP award.
The honour came 675 days after her last game for Australia. “It was great to just get out there again. But I honestly didn’t realise it was that long,” she said.
Robinson said she hopes to see both personal and team improvement for the Diamonds second outing of the Quad series against England in Adelaide tomorrow night.
“We all need to take a step up,’’ she said. “We were a little patchy and we let them (South Africa) back into the game at times.”