Debut settles nerves
Baptism of fire for Thunderbirds’ English import Cardwell
IT ONLY took Eleanor Cardwell one game to realise the difference between England’s Super League and the best netball competition in the world.
Plenty of expectation surrounded the debut of Cardwell – the England Roses shooter, two-time Super League premiership-winner and only new import in Super Netball – for the Adelaide Thunderbirds, who have become favourites to make the finals, based, in large part, on her arrival.
She finished with 34 points on 31-of-38 shooting, including three super shots, to help lead Adelaide to a 59-44 victory over the Queensland Firebirds after overcoming a slow start.
“It’s the first game of the season,” Cardwell said. “We’ve had a great pre-season, but when it comes to the actual games, it’s pretty nerve-racking. I know my arms felt like jelly when I first got out there.
“So I think there were a few nerves to get out of the way and we were just building and building and I think that showed coming into the second half – we had a lot more confidence and just trust in each other that we can actually play at this level and we are OK at netball.
“It was just getting those nerves out of the way.”
Cardwell, 28, played at both goal attack and goal shooter, starting the game with young tall Lucy Austin at the back and then playing with the GS bib on herself in the second half as former Firebird Tippah Dwan came into the game.
Cardwell has been tipped to be one of the standout players in the compettion this season.
But she conceded Super Netball demanded a different level of concentration and consistency. “You can’t have a lapse of concentration, you’ve got to be on it the whole time,” Cardwell said. “It’s going to be a tightly contested game each and every single week. I know back home, there’ll be some games when we’ll be scoring like 89 goals, which is going to be pretty hard to do out here.
“And some games are a lot easier back home, whereas here, each game is going to be solid and you’re going to be tired after every single game.”
Super Netball clubs have been trying to entice Blackpool-born Cardwell to Australia for years. Adelaide had a few cracks but enticing the self-confessed “home girl” to the other side of the world during Covid lockdowns when she would not have had any support was all but impossible.
Her Australian sojourn is being conducted with boyfriend Tom Turner in tow, with his support instrumental not just to her comfort in Adelaide but her performance.
“It’s so, so important for me to have that support,” Cardwell said. “I can get very much in netball. If I was just here on my own, it would be overcome with netball and that’s all I’d think about.”