Shadine van der Merwe reflects on netball journey

The Pretoria-born van der Merwe left South Africa in 2019 when she was playing for the Gauteng Jaguars in the Telkom Netball League, then known as the Brutal Fruit League, before joining Adelaide Thunderbirds and then later moving to the United Kingdom where she represented Manchester Thunder and now Loughborough Lightning, who currently sit at the top of the Netball Super League log standings.

Speaking to SABC Sport, van der Merwe shared what each environment has taught her.

“I think when I played in Australia – that’s full-time professional, so you train during the day and its basically just netball. The quality of netball is obviously higher in Australia, that’s why it’s called the best league in the world. So, it requires you to be very professional and to train during the day, as well as some extras; they would do pilates as a team. 

“The resources are more, and the standard is really high because sometimes, even in the NSL, every game feels like an international game as you always come up against the best in the world,” said van der Merwe

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“When I moved to Manchester Thunder, I really enjoyed it as well. The training schedule is different because you would train from 8pm-10pm at night because the league is still semi-professional, and so many of the players would have full-time jobs. They are basically allowed to go and work and then come to netball after. They would come in and do gym work before we take court at 8pm.”

“Some days when you were there, it felt like a really long day because for international players or imports, you weren't allowed to work different jobs because you had a sporting visa. That can be frustrating, but Manchester Thunder had a great team culture as well; they have high standards and it’s also a team that strives for top-four every year and I like that because it reminds me of when I played for Tuks or Jaguars. I was always in that position fighting for a top four place or a final. So, I really enjoyed that type of dynamic and culture in the team.

“When I moved to Loughborough Lightning I feel like it’s a little bit more professional because we are based at a University, and it’s a really good one. We’ve got access to the physiotherapist anytime during the week, we’ve got access to the high-performance gym facility. There’s much more to do as a player. We train with gps at training and with heart rate monitors.”

The 33-year-old hopes that a professional netball league in South Africa will be realised but admits it won’t happen overnight.