A glass half-full type of person, Tod took the culling from the 16-player squad on the chin with the heralding of the then 21-year-old newcomer, Katrina Grant, for the two home-test series against Australia.
The former Flyer and Canterbury Flames player was on track to become the first Hawke's Bay netballer to represent her country since Rona McCarthy (nee Tong), of Hastings, and the late Gladys Symes (1937), Ruth Butcher (1939) and Margaret Elliott (1960).
McCarthy, who turns 99 in September, is the Hastings Netball Centre patron and played for the Ferns in 1936.
A Bay of Plenty Netball employee, Tod last year finished her tenure there following the zoning and restructuring process.
She played a season with the Northern Mystics as wing defence. "That's probably when I realised it was time to let the young ones step in so I hung up my boots," she says from her Mt Mauganui home where a sprightly Ruby can be heard clearing her lungs in the background.
These days Tod runs her Reform Pilate Studio, holding six compact classes a day which suits her demands as an expectant mother.
"It's a nice, small studio with a set number of hours so it's a more family facility," she explains.
The former BOP captain, who late in 2006 jetted off for a six-month stint to play for Team Northumbria, in Newcastle, north-east England, says her body has been in good nick but it has been more a time-management and commitment issue on playing.
"I didn't have that [time]. I had a little one and Emerson was doing her stuff," she says, adding it wasn't just the dedication to what the team's ritual requirements were but also as an individual.
In fact, it excites her that Emerson, who is prospering as a volleyballer and netballer, is off to Thailand next month as part of the New Zealand women's youth volleyball team for a tournament.
On top of those demands came the fulfilment of sponsorship obligations as a professional.
Consequently she didn't dither when it came to retiring from playing.
"It was quite easy so it made me realise it was my time," she says, harbouring no regrets. "I gave it my everything that there was to give."
Tod says she took up netball as a Central Hawke's Bay College pupil because "it was the thing to do so I played in as many sports as I could".
"It was not a chosen career path that I'll do this," she says, making age-group teams along the way but reflecting on how she missed out in her first trials for the Flyers team but that only made her even more determined to claim a berth the following year.
"I was out of school by then. I was a late bloomer than some of the others. I was just taking small steps and not getting too far beyond."
She enjoyed putting up the shutters in the circle although she had to drift out to wing defence because she accepts she had entered the land of giants with the new breed of shooters in the professional era.
"I always say goal defence was my home on the court so I went back there feeling more comfortable," says the inaugural Magic player, who the Northern Mystics shifted to WD.
Tod doesn't see motherhood as an obstacle to her endeavours. "They [children] are not time-consuming. They fit into your life because that's why I was able to carry on playing."
Pivotal to that was the support of her and Elliott's whanau coming to her assistance in times of pressure.
"Children are more rewarding part of my life and what they bring can be quite interesting."
Tod enjoys visiting high schools to give back to sport, mentoring them to do the right things if they want play at an elite level.
"I want to take it a little further so we have a core group ... who are sitting around the table to see what we can do," she says with a chuckle.
Her advice: "Don't be scared of failure. Do the hard yards and the rest will come to you."
Tod salutes Central Sports netball for its input in her life and development as a youngster.
