Allanah going places in a hurry
Bon“d is the easily the best club I’ve ever played for Allanah Penny Bond netball star
Allanah Penny was an unmissable presence as captain of the Bond Bull Sharks Ruby netball team last season.
The powerful, determined and supremely fit defender was an absolute warrior week-in, week-out.
Until she wasn’t.
An intense and physical tussle with local rival Gold Coast Titans was to blame.
With her team just two points down against a more fancied opponent in front of a frenzied hometown crowd and an upset well and truly brewing, Penny caught the edge of her opponent’s foot during a centre pass contest and severely rolled her ankle.
The hush that came over the crowd as she crumpled to the floor was palpable.
Everyone knew exactly how important Penny was to the relatively inexperienced team she’d led so passionately and capably to that point.
“I knew as soon as I landed that I’d done something serious,” Penny said. “My strapping tape had ripped clean through and the swelling that night was pretty crazy. It was a Grade 3 ligament rupture.”
She was as well positioned as anyone to self-diagnose the seriousness of her injury, of course. The Bond Elite Sport Program scholar is completing a Doctorate of Physiotherapy.
“Bizarrely, we actually studied ankle injuries the following Monday at uni,” she said. “Pretty handy to have me there as a living, breathing example in a room full of potential physiotherapists.”
Despite the disappointment of a season-wrecking injury, it wasn’t all unwelcome news.
Penny still managed to earn Bond’s Player of the Year Award at season-end – a testament not only to her early season form, but also to the esteem in which she was held by teammates and coaches.
“It came as a huge surprise,” she said. “Bond is the easily the best club I’ve ever played for, and I’ve got so much respect for all the people around me here. To be chosen by them was a massive honour.”
Recognition aside, there was still unfinished business to address. The self-confessed fitness nut wasted no time ripping into her injury rehab.
“I work at the BMF gym at Burleigh,” she said. “The owner Blake Morrison is really big on rehabilitation, so he was able to push me in all the right ways. Despite my moon boot, I was on the Skierg machine only a few days later getting stuck into some conditioning classes. It served me well in the end.”
Penny shone when she took to the courts at Bond for 2023 pre-season trials. She gave the selectors no alternative other than to promote her from the Ruby-level netball she’d been playing.
This year she’ll step up to the Hart Sapphire League – an elite state-based feeder competition to national Suncorp Super Netball.
Penny’s reaction to her Sapphire selection speaks volumes.
“I cried!” she said. “I was driving and I had to pull over to take (Bond Bull Sharks Sapphire coach) Bec Stower’s call. I thought I might have been a chance, but I certainly wasn’t really holding out hopes. When Bec told me I just exploded into tears.”
Penny is under no illusions about the enormity of the task ahead. Debuts don’t get any bigger than a round 1 clash against the reigning premiers, Brisbane North Cougars, at Nissan Arena on Saturday night.
“It’s a huge leap,” she said. “The intensity of the contest at Sapphire level is pretty full-on. My job in wing defence is to nullify my direct opponent and make things hard for the opposition attack. You need your wits about you and really stay sharp mentally to understand running patterns and strategies your opponent is using. It’s completely relentless.”
The game will cap a big week. Penny just completed her end-of-year exams. She starts a placement at Physio Lab at Ormeau on the northern Gold Coast next week.
Despite the hectic pace of her life, Penny wouldn’t have it any other way.
“The load with the accelerated progression at Bond is pretty full-on, and your time management gets tested, but the university is really supportive,” she said.