Silver Ferns star joins Australian franchise
Maria Folau will play for the Adelaide Thunderbirds in 2019, giving Super Netball’s strugglers some muchneeded star power.
The Silver Ferns shooter revealed last month that she would play in Australia next year, with Netball New Zealand granting her permission to do so while remaining eligible for the national team.
Folau said she would ‘‘feel like a kid at a new school,’’ upon joining the Thunderbirds, who have finished last in both seasons of the Australian competition, winning only one of their 28 matches.
‘‘I’m so excited to join the team and really be challenged,’’ she said.
‘‘It will be a new team, new dynamics, new playing styles, so this is a real game-changer for me to challenge
Maria Folau
myself and play the best netball that I can.’’
Folau was a part-time player for the Northern Mystics during this year’s national netball premiership, flying in for around half their matches from Sydney where she lives with her husband, Wallaby star Israel Folau.
She made the decision to leave the Mystics not knowing whether she would be able to continue playing for the Silver Ferns, who are building towards the World Cup in England next July under new coach Noeline Taurua.
‘‘The travelling has just been too hard on my body and my mind,’’ Folau said at the time.
‘‘And it’s also been hard on my husband and my family.’’
Thunderbirds coach Tania Obst, a new appointment, said Folau would give the team ‘‘a wealth of experience’’.
Folau will link up with the Thunderbirds for the first time in November, after next month’s Constellation Cup series which pits the Silver Ferns against the Australian Diamonds across four tests, two on either side of the Tasman.
‘‘This is a real gamechanger for me to challenge myself.’’