IT TOOK six years of hard work, determination and passion for April Bethune to even get a taste of the Victorian Netball League (VNL).

At just 16-years-old, Bethune encountered her first obstacle. She was in the middle of tryouts for state and was preparing for VNL tryouts while playing A-grade. Bethune had ruptured her left ACL.

“It was a Tuesday night and I had tryouts for Waves. Hopefully it’ll be my first year of VNL,” she told Rookie Me Central.

Once healed, Bethune returned to the court and ruptured the same knee again at tryouts for the Peninsula Waves. At this rate, she had already been out of the game for 14 months.

“I had exams coming up, I had my 18th birthday, schoolies, and then Christmas was all coming up so I thought I’ll just wait for my surgery,” Bethune said.

“I’ll delay my surgery for a bit for a few months just to get all these events out of the way.”

Bethune had her knee reconstructed five months after the initial injury but it was a bit different this time round.

“I got a bit of a different surgery. I got my patella tendon graft instead of a hamstring graft so it was a bit more of a painful and harder recovery for me,” she said.

Finally in 2021 following covid, Bethune was given the all good to return to netball. She found the mental rehab significantly more challenging than the physical after delay and delay.

In order to return to the game with no expectation, Bethune decided to move clubs for a year to Gippsland Storm which she found helped her in her confidence in not only her game but herself.

“It had been about just under four years since I’d last played,” Bethune said. “I didn’t quite feel comfortable going back into A grade just yet.”

“If I didn’t perform as well as I would have hoped to, then they wouldn’t know how I played beforehand so they don’t know how to compare me..

“I went to a different club just to get my confidence back. Being able to play without the fear of doing it again.”

Once the gears started turning, Bethune got “a bit of grunt and aggression back” and knew she was ready to tackle VNL again head first. Nothing was going to stop her. Until three weeks before VNL tryouts, Bethune partially tore her patella tendon in the same knee

“I finally had my chance to come back into it after waiting for so long and then I couldn’t try out,” she said. “I was so frustrated.”

Near the end of the 2022 season, Bethune’s coach at her local club Drouin told her that someone had to pull out of the div one team at Waves and would like Bethune to attend a couple of training sessions.

She went to a few training sessions and was offered a training partner position to see how she went. Next thing Bethune knew was that she was a permanent player in their div one team then elevated into their champ side the following year. Bethune was named club MVP in both of those years.

“Eventually Waves said, ‘we don’t want to give you a training partnership anymore,” she said. “You can just have a full contract’.”

“I was a bit delayed getting into VNL and everything because I had a few injuries and when I was finally able to try out in 2022, I injured myself again.

“My coach got me a chance to train with them because they needed an extra player. I just started training with them without even trying out because I couldn’t and then that was the door opening for me.”

Bethune grew up with a dad who did just about. every sport. Netball, basketball, footy, water polo, badminton, you name it. He always pushed April into sport from young and played all the works as well.

Bethune never spent time in defence in her junior career. It wasn’t until a random social game, the team’s coach said they’d put Bethune in random positions throughout the game.

The rest is history.

“From there I started to play goal defense a bit more and my dad was always a very defensive player when he played footy,” she said.

“When he started watching me play netball in defense, he would give me tips and tricks. I started to try to put that into my game and I just liked a new challenge and getting better at something.

“I like being able to sit and read the play instead of dictating the play as an attacker would. Because I played so much attacking netball, when I finally got to do the switch, it was a bit of fun but then I just felt like I got good at it so I just stuck to it.”

The Gippsland League A-Grade MVP remembers driving to her first training session with Waves being filled with nerves. Bethune had no clue what to expect as she had never seen what a VNL training environment looked like.

“I wanted to do so well, to impress them that I trained really hard and that set the tone for me and made me continuously try harder,” she said.

From Waves training partner to champ captain in two years all became a bit overwhelming for the so-called ‘skipper’ but she wouldn’t change it for the world.

“I just remember coming home and telling mum, ‘Hey, I’m a training partner’,” Bethune said. “Then the next one was, ‘Hey, I’m in the side’.”

“Then it was starting goal defense and then I got MVP last year and then champ and then captain. It was just like one thing after another.”

The player turnover in the Waves champ side from 2023 to 2024 was immense. Everyone had left except for one player.

“I was one of the experienced players, but I wasn’t because I’ve never played champ before,” Bethune said.

“That was the only thing that made it a bit harder is there’s not really many people to learn from in my team.”

It was a bit of a shocker for Bethune who had progressed to the champ side “quicker than hoped”. She was happy to go from div one into champ, but not so soon — and in only her second year of VNL.

“I would have liked to do another step before being a starting circle defender — getting some other experience from other champ players in my current team,” Bethune said.

On top of all that, Bethune was named co-captain of the Waves champ side as one of the new players being elevated. She was immensely grateful for the opportunity, especially being recognised for heer hard work by her teammates.

“It’s an honor and it’s so nice for the other girls to want us to be the leaders,” Bethune said. ”I really appreciate that they see me as that leader.”

“At the same time, I’m trying to learn how to be a champ player myself and I feel like I’ve still got to be a leader, be a role model.

“It was a bit daunting in my head, but I know it was just another challenge that I wanted to do and take on.”

The 24-year-old prides herself of being talkative on court as a goal keeper as she’s able to sit back and watch the play to instruct her players on what to do on the court.

“Teams play how they train and I like to have really good training sessions. I try to push people at training as well,” Bethune said.

“Sometimes we’ll get silly and have a bit of a chat at training, which is fine, but then it’s time to switch back on and get back into it.”