A HEAD knock was the burden of all evil that sent shockwaves through the Australian Fast5 camp. Kim Jenner was ruled out of the remainder of the tournament leaving just two defenders for the reigning champs.

But someone saved the day. Amy Sligar was popped in the relatively unfamiliar position of goal defence for the first time since she was 14 years-old. The Giants midcourter grew up playing circle defence but had to move into the middle of the court as she wasn’t growing “quite as quickly as everyone else”.

In preparation for the Fast5 camp, Sligar was training alongside Giants teammate Matisse Letherbarrow, Swifts shooter Sophie Fawns, and defender Teigan O’Shannassy. During training, Sligar would be matched up on Fawns a lot in a goal attack v goal defence situation which helped Sligar prepare for what was to come in the near future.

“I definitely felt it’d be out of my depth, but the staff and all the girls were super supportive and reminded me that it was just normal netball,” she told Rookie Me Central. “It’s the same game. It’s just slightly different or slightly more room in that back third.

“That’s the beauty of team sport is that if you’re in a situation, you’re not alone and they all certainly helped me out. It was a shock, but we got through it and we were lucky enough to come away with the win, so we’ll take it.”

Australia decided to take four shooters, three midcourters and three defenders to the tournament. Unfortunately in sport, you always have to prepare for possible injuries. So when the inevitable happened to Jenner, Sligar knew as a defensive midcourter, it would be her to slip back into the circle.

“In any tournament you’ve got to be ready for things to change and that obviously happened quite quickly. In that game, she got injured,” she said.

“We knew pretty quickly she wasn’t going to be back which was a real shame for her and our team, but it was then straight into, ‘okay, what are we going to do now?’”

With just seconds to go in the quarter, time was held to escort Jenner to the sidelines while coach Anita Keelan pulled the rest of the team aside to talk about the new plan. Everyone was on board and everyone knew what to do. Sligar knew exactly what she needed to do.

For the first time in eight years, Sligar popped on the goal defence bib and did wonders for Australia. This all feels like one big sudden hit. But this all started back in August.

Sligar was notified of her selection as a reserve in the Fast5 side right after the 2024 Super Netball season. After a slight break, it was time to get back into business and go into camp ready for the upcoming tournament. Little did Sligar know she would be travelling to New Zealand to wear the green and gold.

“You always train knowing that you’ve got to go to camp and be the best prepared to support the team and challenge the team in camp, and then knowing that there is that chance of playing,” she said.

“It’s a mental challenge to prepare for camp, but I was super lucky.”

The last minute call up was bittersweet for the 22-year-old as Zara Walters was ruled out due to injury.

“It was disappointing because that means it’s on the back of someone else’s injury, which is always a shame, but I guess then in those five days you’ve got to scramble and get ready because I was going away for two days and now it was going to be nearly two weeks,” Sligar said.

Those two weeks were ones to remember. There were five other countries represented in the two day endeavour with all making their marks on fellow and opposition athletes.

“It was really exciting to be there with all the other countries and the other teams,” Sligar said.

“You get to know the other players from the other teams and reconnect even with the girls in our own team.

“We’ve grown up playing together through underage pathways and then we all separate in our own Suncorp Super Netball teams and then to come back together and work as one team again was really nice. What you see on TV is pretty much how it felt in real life.”

Fast five is highly regarded as the ‘fun’ tournament or ‘the game for the fans’ because of the props, music and theatrics that take place. Every nation performs a dance routine prior to their first game of the day and the Australian women’s team decided to go with the Hoedown Throwdown.

Countless hours were spent practicing in the hotel hallways and the hotel rooms which the players found to be more difficult than the moderated game.

“It’s always good just to get out there and have a laugh and distract yourself from the nerves of playing netball,” Sligar giggled.

“A few girls took charge and we all just followed along, and we made the most of the nerve wracking situation.”