O'Connell: 'I’m just so excited to be back'
“When Curly [Bloxham] text and asked me to come for a yarn I honestly thought she wanted a hand with some coaching."
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Jennifer O’Connell had mentally closed the door on her time playing ANZ Premiership netball.
The 2017 and 2018 ANZ Premiership winning shooter had resigned herself to the fact her netball playing days as a pro were done.
O’Connell suffered a season-ending knee injury playing for the Southern Steel in 2020, which appeared to be the end of her career.
“I can honestly say for me that door had firmly closed,” O’Connell told The Roar Podcast, in a feature interview that will go live this week.
However, the door actually has re-opened.
It came via an unexpected phone call from Steel coach Reinga Bloxham earlier this year.
“When Curly [Bloxham] text and asked me to come for a yarn I honestly thought she wanted a hand with some coaching.
“For me, netball was done, and I was content with that,” O’Connell told The Roar Podcast.
“So, for her to ring and ask me to come back [and play] was the last thing I expected.”
O’Connell’s unexpected Steel contract has come on the back of star shooter George Fisher’s ongoing knee problem.
For a second straight year, Fisher will miss the ANZ Premiership.
After O’Connell suffered her knee injury in 2020, she rehabbed and felt at that time she was ready to return to the Steel. Although she was overlooked and started to look at other things in life to “fill her cup”.
It hurt at the time, but she acknowledged that they do operate in a high-performance environment, and she had to grapple with that mentally.
“When I left, I guess I didn’t leave on terms I was happy with, or terms that sat well with me.
“But I’ve done a lot of work in that space and I’m just so excited to be back.”
O’Connell described her second coming as a Steel player as like winning Lotto but without having to buy a Lotto ticket.
While O’Connell had parked netball awaye, she has kept her hand in elite-level sport playing basketball.
Last season O’Connell lined up for the Southern Hoiho in the national women’s basketball league.
It is that basketball experience that has ensured she can now return to top-flight netball at relatively short notice.
“I’m incredibly lucky that I’ve been playing basketball. I guess ever since I’ve come in that’s been a big talking point.
“Curly has mentioned so many times that she can see [that basketball] has been a positive impact, and I definitely think it has helped the way I play.
“Coming in fit [to netball], as a coach the last thing they want to have to do is to start with fitness.”
The Steel will open its campaign on Monday night against the Tactix in Christchurch.
The team is coming off a tough 2023 season when the Steel went through the competition winless.
Although O’Connell said as a group, they’ve had enough of talking about that.
“There is so much outside noise, and everybody loves to bring [last season] up, but I know for the girls in the room everyone is over it.
“It’s sport, of course it’s going to be a conversation but the work that’s being done and the group of people that are there right now, it is going to be different. I’m telling you.”
For the full interview with Jennifer O’Connell keep an eye on The Southland Tribune this week for Edition 5 of The Roar Podcast.