Trish Fanning
Photo © Mike Dunbar
With every new year comes exciting new possibilities and opportunities. For the Republic of Ireland’s netball squad, 2016 will offer the chance to build on the fantastic recent progress that has been made, and to look to improve on their current work ranking of 26.
For me, there is the prospect of chatting with more members of the Ireland senior squad; to hear about their love of the game, the dedication and determination it takes to become an international athlete, and the development and future of netball in the Republic. I’m delighted that the first article of 2016 features the Ireland centre/wing attack Trish Fanning....
“I first started playing netball when I was at school,” Trish began. “I grew up and went to school in the south side of Dublin. At that time Dublin was the main area in the Republic where the game was played in schools, and there were a lot of girls’ schools in and around the city. As well as netball, I did get the chance to play a bit of Gaelic football, camogie [no need to look the word up this time... it’s ladies hurling], tennis and stuff like that, but netball was always the game I was always most interested in....”
Does a love of sport run in the family?
“My older sister played netball for Ireland when she was in school—we went to the same school, St Anne’s in Milltown—my Dad played a lot of hurling when he was younger, so we probably got it from his side of the family. I’ve got a twin sister as well but she wasn’t so keen on sport!”
The name St Anne’s is synonymous with netball in Dublin—Trish currently plays for the club that bears the school name, as do previous interviewees Níamh Murphy and Jan Hynes. “Basically St Anne’s was our secondary school,” Trish continued, “but it shut down in 2000. I was in the last year before the school closed, and it was around that time that netball started to get phased out of schools around Dublin.
“But because St Anne’s was an all-girls school, everyone played netball, and a club was formed so that everybody could continue playing. There are a lot of past pupils that play at St Anne’s, so it’s probably still the biggest netball club in Dublin.”
Given the relatively limited popularity of netball across the Republic of Ireland as a whole, how established is the pathway from schools, to clubs, and onto possible international recognition? And how hard is it to make that transition?
“Because there are fewer people playing, in some ways it is should be easier to get noticed if you are a good player, or if you show a lot of potential. But unfortunately because netball’s not developed in schools, it can actually be quite hard to find the players that have got that potential. Not a lot of people can make the step up; sometimes it’s because the girls are too young—but that’s something we’re trying to tap into at the moment. Two of the girls on the senior squad, Gen Slater and Ali Higginbotham are going to look after the under 17s and the development squad. The under 17s are probably a little bit too young to step up to senior level; the girls in the development squad are over seventeen, but still not ready for senior, so the aim is to work with them and give them every chance to develop.
“My own experience was very different though. I got called up into the senior squad about four-and-a-half years ago, when I was twenty-eight I think... so pretty old!
“Basically after school I stepped away from netball for a while, I went to college, took a year off, then played for two years at college, where I represented my college team—which was UCD [University College, Dublin]—then after that I went travelling for a bit, came back, and joined St Anne’s. I was lucky that the coach of the Irish squad at the time was also coach at St Anne’s, and the international squad had a ranking tournament coming up in Gibraltar—Ireland didn’t have a world ranking before that. She asked if I’d be interested in playing... and of course I said ‘yes’!
“To be honest I’d never really thought about playing netball at that level before then—I was just playing and enjoying it; but it wasn’t until I was approached when I thought that actually this was something I’d really like to do. Looking back, I suppose it’s a regret that I didn’t think about it when I was younger, but obviously I was delighted to take the opportunity when it came along.”
Presumably, having grown up and played so much netball in Dublin, Trish would have already known the majority of her new team mates? “Actually, I didn’t know a lot of the girls in the squad,” she admitted. “Of course some of them had been at St Anne’s with me, and a few I would have recognised from playing club netball, but I actually met a lot of new people—like Sacha [Shipway], who I’d maybe played against, but didn’t really know—and a lot of the Australian and New Zealand girls, so it was a really good experience.”
During her international career, Trish has been part of squads that have travelled to Singapore to participate in the Nations Cup. Would those tournaments be the highlight of her time as an elite athlete? “Oh definitely! Those trips were amazing!
“Before the first time we went to Singapore—in 2012—we’d played some teams around Europe and we kind of thought we were really good, but in Singapore we realised that there was a whole other standard that we really needed to get to. It was great to play these teams and experience good solid international competition, but it was also a big wake-up call for us.
“After that we entered a period where, as a team, we came together and decided to put all our effort into returning the following year as a much stronger unit; so in 2013 we really went for it. We went back to Singapore and we’d improved so much; it was great to work so hard towards a goal and accomplish something out of it. We could really see how much better we were getting—they were good times.”
There was obvious pride in Trish’s voice as she recalled the squad’s collective achievement, which included a 62-33 victory over the USA; Ireland’s first ever victory in the Nations Cup. As with many of her team mates, Trish has fond memories of the experience of competing in the Far East, and the atmosphere generated by the crowds who came to watch the games: “It’s unbelievable. They love netball so much over there. They put a lot of money into the sport; it’s in the schools, the kids love it. Schools would come and watch all the matches in Singapore—there’d be crowds of kids looking for pictures and autographs after the game; and that’s something we’d never experience at home. It was wonderful to see, and it was lovely to be in that environment.”
Time now for the “killer question”: what would Trish say she brings to the squad, both on and off the court?
“I think one of my strengths would be my speed and ability to move,” came the immediate response. “I’m a fast, nippy kind of person. I’m not the tallest—I’m 5’ 3”—and I suppose ideally for netball you should be a good bit taller, so my height has always been something that’s gone against me, but to make up for that I’ve always worked on my fitness, and to be as good as I can be at positioning myself around the court. I normally play at centre or wing attack, and I hope that I’ve become quite good at moving around the edge of the circle, moving into pockets, getting out for centre passes and things like that.
“Off the court, I think probably bring a bit of craic to the team! Travelling away to tournaments can be quite stressful—maybe you lose a couple of matches, or players don’t get much time on court—and I think I can help to pick people up and keep the mood a bit more upbeat.”
As if to confirm Trish’s influence away from the court, I’ve seen a clip from a video diary recorded during the 2013 trip to Singapore, in which individual members of the Ireland squad were asked a number of “important” questions. Trish may not have been voted the best singer or dancer, but she was almost unanimously considered the funniest member of what is clearly a happy and close-knit squad.
There can be no denying the progress that has been made on court, but does Trish believe that the structure is in place for the players—whether individually or collectively—to reach their full potential?
“I think it is developing,” was Trish’s considered reply. “At the moment we have a coach from the UK [Joan Young], who’s fantastic. She’s worked with Netball England for years; she’s got so much experience. And every time Joan comes over, she’ll teach us something new, which is great for us over here, because before we met Kaylea McQuade who was our coach back in 2012-2013—she was absolutely amazing as well by the way—you just couldn’t get that level of knowledge and experience here.
“We’re also lucky to have girls in the squad from Australia, who’ve played State league over there; they know so much and teach us such a lot. We feel like we’re constantly learning new things and getting better. One of the problems we do have is the lack of players coming up, so that we can pass on all the things we’ve learned, but that’s something that will hopefully be addressed with all the work that’s going on with the under-17s and development squads.
“And as well as all that, there’s the fact that Jan [Hynes] and Gen [Slater] were asked to play for Grangetown this season,” Trish continued. “No one from the Republic had ever been chosen to go over to the UK and play in the Premier League, so it’s absolutely brilliant and a really good achievement for the two of them. I think if Grangetown had come over here three years ago and played against us, they’d probably have beaten us comfortably, and not even looked at any of our players; so I think it shows just how far we’ve come in such a relatively short space of time.
“It helps us as a squad as well, because they’ll come back and show us what they’ve learned; and we’ll be able to practice new skills and drills in our training sessions. I know the girls would love for the arrangement to continue. They seem to think things are working out and, to be honest, they are two very easy people to get along with! They make friends easily and would fit in well into any team after a couple of training sessions... so hopefully this is just the start....”
The continuing progress of the elite squad will ultimately be judged on results... and that all important world ranking; but do the Irish girls really have the opportunity to consistently test themselves in competitive situations?
“I think in the last year, we’ve probably had more opportunities than in the past. It’s great to go to Singapore and play against international teams, but you only get to play six games in a year. During 2015, we made a couple of trips to the UK to play some university sides; and whilst they’re not international teams, they are teams that are better than us. It’s brilliant to go over and experience really tough competition—we just don’t have any competition over here in the Republic—but you can go to the UK, play against teams that are better than you, then aim to put what you’ve learned into practice... keep working and hopefully developing. We will also play against teams from Northern Ireland, like Belfast Ladies, whose squad includes some Northern Irish internationals, or we get to play against Northern Ireland, and it’s just great for us. We then get to practice what we’ve been working on, which is something that we haven’t had the opportunity to do before; so hopefully all that continues to happen....
“There’s the Europeans this year [in May]; we’re also lined up to face Grenada [ranked no.30 in the world], and another international team... I think it might be USA, who are ranked slightly above us [no.25]; so we’ll play against teams we know like Switzerland in the Europeans, but also get some other international competition as well; teams that we’ve never played against before. That’s really exciting and maybe if we can beat those teams, we’ll be able to improve our ranking?”
So what of the future then?
“I’d still love to be involved with Netball Ireland. They really try very hard to get young kids to come along and take part in the sport; they’re working to protect the future of netball over here, and that’s something I’d really like to be part of. Netball Ireland does run a schools’ programme; basically a couple of girls will go out to schools around Dublin, or around the country, to give them kit and balls and teach the kids how to play. They also run a Saturday club for the youngsters, which has been really successful—and I’ve helped out a couple of times. It’s a lot of fun and it’s wonderful to see the kids enjoying it as much as we do. I’d really like to give back something. Netball Ireland has been very good to us over the years and it would be nice to be able to return the favour to somebody else down the line.
“Of course we would benefit from more exposure and funding, but in the short- to medium-term, we just need to keep working with the schools, and trying to keep developing those players who are in the middle ground at the moment. It’s going to be hard. You’ve got to find people who want this as much as we do; people that are willing to give up their time and dedicate themselves to the sport, and that’s not always easy. But even if we struggle, we still have to keep working on it, because if we don’t then we’ll be in trouble. We’ve got a really committed squad though, and good people behind us, so hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel….
“I just love playing netball” Trish continued. “The whole squad is so passionate about the sport. You make lifelong friends and, even now, I love learning new things and just continuously developing and improving. There’s nothing more rewarding than learning something new and then putting it into practice really well against a good team. It’s just so important that we all keep working so hard to keep the momentum going, and not let it all fade away after we leave the squad, otherwise all of this would have been for nothing....”
Of course it’s impossible to predict the future with absolute certainty, but after talking to Trish and a number of her international team mates, you really can’t help but feel that the future of netball in the Republic of Ireland is in the best possible hands.
© Richard Kirby 2016
For me, there is the prospect of chatting with more members of the Ireland senior squad; to hear about their love of the game, the dedication and determination it takes to become an international athlete, and the development and future of netball in the Republic. I’m delighted that the first article of 2016 features the Ireland centre/wing attack Trish Fanning....
“I first started playing netball when I was at school,” Trish began. “I grew up and went to school in the south side of Dublin. At that time Dublin was the main area in the Republic where the game was played in schools, and there were a lot of girls’ schools in and around the city. As well as netball, I did get the chance to play a bit of Gaelic football, camogie [no need to look the word up this time... it’s ladies hurling], tennis and stuff like that, but netball was always the game I was always most interested in....”
Does a love of sport run in the family?
“My older sister played netball for Ireland when she was in school—we went to the same school, St Anne’s in Milltown—my Dad played a lot of hurling when he was younger, so we probably got it from his side of the family. I’ve got a twin sister as well but she wasn’t so keen on sport!”
The name St Anne’s is synonymous with netball in Dublin—Trish currently plays for the club that bears the school name, as do previous interviewees Níamh Murphy and Jan Hynes. “Basically St Anne’s was our secondary school,” Trish continued, “but it shut down in 2000. I was in the last year before the school closed, and it was around that time that netball started to get phased out of schools around Dublin.
“But because St Anne’s was an all-girls school, everyone played netball, and a club was formed so that everybody could continue playing. There are a lot of past pupils that play at St Anne’s, so it’s probably still the biggest netball club in Dublin.”
Given the relatively limited popularity of netball across the Republic of Ireland as a whole, how established is the pathway from schools, to clubs, and onto possible international recognition? And how hard is it to make that transition?
“Because there are fewer people playing, in some ways it is should be easier to get noticed if you are a good player, or if you show a lot of potential. But unfortunately because netball’s not developed in schools, it can actually be quite hard to find the players that have got that potential. Not a lot of people can make the step up; sometimes it’s because the girls are too young—but that’s something we’re trying to tap into at the moment. Two of the girls on the senior squad, Gen Slater and Ali Higginbotham are going to look after the under 17s and the development squad. The under 17s are probably a little bit too young to step up to senior level; the girls in the development squad are over seventeen, but still not ready for senior, so the aim is to work with them and give them every chance to develop.
“My own experience was very different though. I got called up into the senior squad about four-and-a-half years ago, when I was twenty-eight I think... so pretty old!
“Basically after school I stepped away from netball for a while, I went to college, took a year off, then played for two years at college, where I represented my college team—which was UCD [University College, Dublin]—then after that I went travelling for a bit, came back, and joined St Anne’s. I was lucky that the coach of the Irish squad at the time was also coach at St Anne’s, and the international squad had a ranking tournament coming up in Gibraltar—Ireland didn’t have a world ranking before that. She asked if I’d be interested in playing... and of course I said ‘yes’!
“To be honest I’d never really thought about playing netball at that level before then—I was just playing and enjoying it; but it wasn’t until I was approached when I thought that actually this was something I’d really like to do. Looking back, I suppose it’s a regret that I didn’t think about it when I was younger, but obviously I was delighted to take the opportunity when it came along.”
Presumably, having grown up and played so much netball in Dublin, Trish would have already known the majority of her new team mates? “Actually, I didn’t know a lot of the girls in the squad,” she admitted. “Of course some of them had been at St Anne’s with me, and a few I would have recognised from playing club netball, but I actually met a lot of new people—like Sacha [Shipway], who I’d maybe played against, but didn’t really know—and a lot of the Australian and New Zealand girls, so it was a really good experience.”
During her international career, Trish has been part of squads that have travelled to Singapore to participate in the Nations Cup. Would those tournaments be the highlight of her time as an elite athlete? “Oh definitely! Those trips were amazing!
“Before the first time we went to Singapore—in 2012—we’d played some teams around Europe and we kind of thought we were really good, but in Singapore we realised that there was a whole other standard that we really needed to get to. It was great to play these teams and experience good solid international competition, but it was also a big wake-up call for us.
“After that we entered a period where, as a team, we came together and decided to put all our effort into returning the following year as a much stronger unit; so in 2013 we really went for it. We went back to Singapore and we’d improved so much; it was great to work so hard towards a goal and accomplish something out of it. We could really see how much better we were getting—they were good times.”
There was obvious pride in Trish’s voice as she recalled the squad’s collective achievement, which included a 62-33 victory over the USA; Ireland’s first ever victory in the Nations Cup. As with many of her team mates, Trish has fond memories of the experience of competing in the Far East, and the atmosphere generated by the crowds who came to watch the games: “It’s unbelievable. They love netball so much over there. They put a lot of money into the sport; it’s in the schools, the kids love it. Schools would come and watch all the matches in Singapore—there’d be crowds of kids looking for pictures and autographs after the game; and that’s something we’d never experience at home. It was wonderful to see, and it was lovely to be in that environment.”
Time now for the “killer question”: what would Trish say she brings to the squad, both on and off the court?
“I think one of my strengths would be my speed and ability to move,” came the immediate response. “I’m a fast, nippy kind of person. I’m not the tallest—I’m 5’ 3”—and I suppose ideally for netball you should be a good bit taller, so my height has always been something that’s gone against me, but to make up for that I’ve always worked on my fitness, and to be as good as I can be at positioning myself around the court. I normally play at centre or wing attack, and I hope that I’ve become quite good at moving around the edge of the circle, moving into pockets, getting out for centre passes and things like that.
“Off the court, I think probably bring a bit of craic to the team! Travelling away to tournaments can be quite stressful—maybe you lose a couple of matches, or players don’t get much time on court—and I think I can help to pick people up and keep the mood a bit more upbeat.”
As if to confirm Trish’s influence away from the court, I’ve seen a clip from a video diary recorded during the 2013 trip to Singapore, in which individual members of the Ireland squad were asked a number of “important” questions. Trish may not have been voted the best singer or dancer, but she was almost unanimously considered the funniest member of what is clearly a happy and close-knit squad.
There can be no denying the progress that has been made on court, but does Trish believe that the structure is in place for the players—whether individually or collectively—to reach their full potential?
“I think it is developing,” was Trish’s considered reply. “At the moment we have a coach from the UK [Joan Young], who’s fantastic. She’s worked with Netball England for years; she’s got so much experience. And every time Joan comes over, she’ll teach us something new, which is great for us over here, because before we met Kaylea McQuade who was our coach back in 2012-2013—she was absolutely amazing as well by the way—you just couldn’t get that level of knowledge and experience here.
“We’re also lucky to have girls in the squad from Australia, who’ve played State league over there; they know so much and teach us such a lot. We feel like we’re constantly learning new things and getting better. One of the problems we do have is the lack of players coming up, so that we can pass on all the things we’ve learned, but that’s something that will hopefully be addressed with all the work that’s going on with the under-17s and development squads.
“And as well as all that, there’s the fact that Jan [Hynes] and Gen [Slater] were asked to play for Grangetown this season,” Trish continued. “No one from the Republic had ever been chosen to go over to the UK and play in the Premier League, so it’s absolutely brilliant and a really good achievement for the two of them. I think if Grangetown had come over here three years ago and played against us, they’d probably have beaten us comfortably, and not even looked at any of our players; so I think it shows just how far we’ve come in such a relatively short space of time.
“It helps us as a squad as well, because they’ll come back and show us what they’ve learned; and we’ll be able to practice new skills and drills in our training sessions. I know the girls would love for the arrangement to continue. They seem to think things are working out and, to be honest, they are two very easy people to get along with! They make friends easily and would fit in well into any team after a couple of training sessions... so hopefully this is just the start....”
The continuing progress of the elite squad will ultimately be judged on results... and that all important world ranking; but do the Irish girls really have the opportunity to consistently test themselves in competitive situations?
“I think in the last year, we’ve probably had more opportunities than in the past. It’s great to go to Singapore and play against international teams, but you only get to play six games in a year. During 2015, we made a couple of trips to the UK to play some university sides; and whilst they’re not international teams, they are teams that are better than us. It’s brilliant to go over and experience really tough competition—we just don’t have any competition over here in the Republic—but you can go to the UK, play against teams that are better than you, then aim to put what you’ve learned into practice... keep working and hopefully developing. We will also play against teams from Northern Ireland, like Belfast Ladies, whose squad includes some Northern Irish internationals, or we get to play against Northern Ireland, and it’s just great for us. We then get to practice what we’ve been working on, which is something that we haven’t had the opportunity to do before; so hopefully all that continues to happen....
“There’s the Europeans this year [in May]; we’re also lined up to face Grenada [ranked no.30 in the world], and another international team... I think it might be USA, who are ranked slightly above us [no.25]; so we’ll play against teams we know like Switzerland in the Europeans, but also get some other international competition as well; teams that we’ve never played against before. That’s really exciting and maybe if we can beat those teams, we’ll be able to improve our ranking?”
So what of the future then?
“I’d still love to be involved with Netball Ireland. They really try very hard to get young kids to come along and take part in the sport; they’re working to protect the future of netball over here, and that’s something I’d really like to be part of. Netball Ireland does run a schools’ programme; basically a couple of girls will go out to schools around Dublin, or around the country, to give them kit and balls and teach the kids how to play. They also run a Saturday club for the youngsters, which has been really successful—and I’ve helped out a couple of times. It’s a lot of fun and it’s wonderful to see the kids enjoying it as much as we do. I’d really like to give back something. Netball Ireland has been very good to us over the years and it would be nice to be able to return the favour to somebody else down the line.
“Of course we would benefit from more exposure and funding, but in the short- to medium-term, we just need to keep working with the schools, and trying to keep developing those players who are in the middle ground at the moment. It’s going to be hard. You’ve got to find people who want this as much as we do; people that are willing to give up their time and dedicate themselves to the sport, and that’s not always easy. But even if we struggle, we still have to keep working on it, because if we don’t then we’ll be in trouble. We’ve got a really committed squad though, and good people behind us, so hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel….
“I just love playing netball” Trish continued. “The whole squad is so passionate about the sport. You make lifelong friends and, even now, I love learning new things and just continuously developing and improving. There’s nothing more rewarding than learning something new and then putting it into practice really well against a good team. It’s just so important that we all keep working so hard to keep the momentum going, and not let it all fade away after we leave the squad, otherwise all of this would have been for nothing....”
Of course it’s impossible to predict the future with absolute certainty, but after talking to Trish and a number of her international team mates, you really can’t help but feel that the future of netball in the Republic of Ireland is in the best possible hands.
© Richard Kirby 2016