Netball: Changing sides to stay in the game

Julie Kelman-Poto could only have been described as a dyed in the wool Waikato netballer.

That is, until premier Silver Ferns shooter Irene van Dyk switched franchises to the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic this season.

Kelman-Poto used the word "gutted" to express her initial feelings when realising her goalshoot spot in the Magic team was as good as gone.

"I only ever played for Waikato because I play netball for fun and Waikato was my team," Kelman-Poto said. "I never presumed I'd be good enough to play anywhere else and then they got Irene, so what do you do when you're replaced by the world's best shooter."

Kelman-Poto's story is unique and tinged with those old fashioned values that have all but disappeared in the modern sports era.

At 31, the easy option would have been to just hang up her netball boots, but considering that she had only started playing the game at 28, that didn't sit well.

"I really do enjoy playing. I had a bit of an issue because I'm quite a passionate Waikato person.

"I wasn't as passionate about Auckland - although I was born there.

"But then I thought, 'no, you don't actually have to be passionate about the place you play for, you just have to be passionate about the sport'."

With that hurdle cleared, Kelman-Poto moved out of her comfort zone and into the Auckland-based Diamonds franchise.

In her early sporting days, Kelman-Poto played basketball, considering netball a bit of a "chick's sport" but tossed up between rugby and netball when she met her future husband.

"He thought I'd be quite good at netball, so netball it was."

She has vague memories of being in the C team as a 7-year-old, but that was only because her mother was the coach.

Until three years ago, that was Kelman-Poto's only association with the sport.

Kelman-Poto plays for the sheer enjoyment and, with no real history in the sport, could not have told you who has or hasn't played for the Silver Ferns.

"It's really bad to say, but I don't know much about the Silver Ferns.

"I can name them this year because half of them are my friends now. But prior to this I didn't watch netball and I certainly didn't know Joan [Hodson, Diamonds coach] was a Silver Fern."

The ironic thing about that is Kelman-Poto came under close scrutiny from the national selectors last year when she made the New Zealand academy squad, a step away from national squad selection.

Life sounds not-too-serious for Kelman-Poto, whose conversation is littered with laughs and good humour, but serious enough for the mother of two to burn plenty of petrol from her Cambridge home to Diamonds training and games.

She covers 360km a round trip and stays in Auckland for one night, meaning she only has to make the trek twice rather than three times a week.

And how do the Diamonds compare with the Waikato team she once thought were irreplaceable?

"Half of them are Waikato girls anyway, so it's like I haven't even moved," she said.

"It is great.

"It's almost ... and I hate to say this ... we're almost closer than it was at Waikato."

- NZPA