WILL GOLD GO ON?
SLSA MAKES CALL ON EVENT:
ELLA Bertacchini had to navigate uncharted waters to land on the Bond University Bull Sharks’ doorstep on the eve of the 2020 Sapphire Series.
A Victorian state league netballer for Melbourne University, Bertacchini was planning to take the year off to head to Europe after finishing an undergraduate degree.
Those plans fell through but Bertacchini’s coach had put her name forward to play for Bond in the 2020 Sapphire Series.
“I had previously looked at living in Queensland but I’d never put it into action,” Bertacchini
said. “Sheryl Burns (Bond coach) called me and I had a think about it and thought there was no reason not to go.
“Initially they wanted me to fly up so I could come and train and prove my worth but then the border closures set in.”
After consulting the Bull Sharks, the 25-year-old decided to take a leap of faith and committed to driving to Queensland.
But as Melbourne plunged further into a COVID-19 outbreak, the Victoria-NSW border was due to close and Bertacchini was forced to pack her bags in less than half a day.
Successfully making it to NSW, Bertacchini was on her way to Queensland when the rules changed once more and she realised she would have to spend two weeks in hotel quarantine because she had come from Melbourne.
“Stu (Bond director of netball Stu Allen) met me across the border at Tweed and we were trying to decide what to do because I had to be across by noon the next day,” she said.
“I just wanted to get across and be safe so I decided to stay the night in Tweed and then the next day, with Victorian number plates, they pulled me aside straight away and said I had one hour to make it to the quarantine hotel and they called to make sure I’d arrived.”
After two weeks of pilates, high-intensity interval training workouts, a Masters university application, Netflix, food and shuttle runs within her hotel room, the goal shooter was released and jumped straight into training with the Bull Sharks.
“I pulled up a bit sore from my first session but it’s been incredible getting to work with Nicole Cusack as a specialist coach while settling in,” Bertacchini said.
“I don’t know what to gauge out of training but I’m excited to see what the other teams are like.”
The Bull Sharks kick off their Sapphire Series campaign on Sunday at 5pm in Brisbane against the Jets.