Pettitt happy to take this call
IT was a phone call Australian netball coach Lisa Alexander first made four years ago but it still ended the same way as it had in 2014 — with one of her players in tears.
“It can get very emotional when you make the calls to players,’’ said Alexander of a ring- around which delivered both good and bad news to Australian netball squad members this week.
But this time Sydney netballer Susan Pettitt was shedding tears of happiness as she learned she was one of just 12 players named for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.
“She’s had so many calls over the years where she has missed out so it was a lovely moment to tell her she was in,’’ Alexander said of Pettitt being named to play at her third Commonwealth Games — and second on home soil — on the Gold Coast in April.
Pettitt has been in and out of favour with coaches and selectors during her long career, missing both the last Commonwealth Games in 2014 and world championship in 2015 during a four- year- long sojourn from national duties.
And because she has been on the receiving end of bad news in the past, Pettitt admits she was exceptionally nervous the day of the call.
“I tried to keep myself busy all day but when I heard it was a ‘ yes, you are going to the Commonwealth Games’ I got a bit emotional. It was such a relief,’’ said Pettitt. “It is quite special to be going to a second home Games. I’m the only one in the team which was there in 2006.’’
At 33 the oldest member of the team heading to the Gold Coast, Pettitt said she had little chance to forget she was the Diamonds veteran.
“Cath Cox ( former Australian captain) read that I was 10 years older than the youngest player so took a photo and sent it to me,’’ Pettitt said.
The Diamonds will attend one more camp ahead of the Commonwealth Games where they will bid to defend the netball crown they won in Glasgow.