Housby bids to eclipse golden moment as she returns to England fold

HELEN HOUSBY splits life into two very distinct parts — life before that goal in 2018 and life beyond that seminal moment.

While living in the host nation back then, she had read and heard how netball was the one guaranteed gold for Australia at the Commonwealth Games.

But that did not turn out to be the case, as Housby’s goal in the last moment of a thrilling final changed her life and that of the England team.

The win thrust her and the sport under the spotlight, with awards ceremonies, sponsorship deals and, crucially, a huge rise in participation numbers, including Housby’s own mother, who still eagerly messages her daughter if she has a notable performance on court.

Now the 26-year-old is set to make her first appearance for England since the 2019 World Cup as part of the three-match Roses Reunited series against Jamaica starting on Sunday at London’s Copper Box Arena.

It seems unthinkable that Housby can ever eclipse the gold-medal winning events of 2018 for pure drama but, in a big season including a Commonwealth Games title defence in August, that is her target.

“I don’t want to say it can’t be eclipsed as I want something to work for and look forward to,” she said. “It was an incredible moment and changed netball in this country.

“Winning more comfortably would be nice, easier on the heart rate! But I’m excited for what the next couple of years brings for England.”

Housby is an established figure on the club and international scene — “I don’t want to say old, more experienced,” she says — and still feels at times like she is riding the crest of the wave from that one successful shot on goal in particular.

“It’s funny but I look at life before the Commonwealth Games and after, it’s so different,” she said. “Everything changed completely after the Games and we’re still feeling the effects of it now with interest in netball and me personally.

“At the start, it was quite daunting and overwhelming but I’m very appreciative of it. I want to put netball on the main stage and do everything to make it a better place.”

She has continued to put netball on the map, most recently in winning the Super Netball grand final for the NSW Swifts at the end of a bizarre, Covidaffected season.

She played her opening three games of the season in Sydney where she was based before darting around the country in a bid to dodge the various state lockdowns and keep playing.

“Cases first started to rise in New South Wales and we got word we were going into lockdown and we found out we had to escape,” she said. “We had less than a day to escape Sydney. We were initially told we’d be gone for two weeks but it was months and I never returned to Sydney before the end of the season.”

The road-and-air trip took her to Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Adelaide and finally a return to Brisbane, city hopping that involved last-minute midnight charter flights to temporary homes. It became commonplace to buy milk and butter in the various apartments she stayed only to leave them behind untouched.

“It was a lot of stress but being forced into a situation like that really helps if you’ve got strong bonds with team-mates,” she said.

She is confident of transferring that club form to international level. “The ultimate goal is to do that repeatedly for England,” she said.

“We had a taste of that in 2019 and we want more. The 2018 success can’t be a one-off.”

Scoring that winning goal in 2018 changed my life and netball in this country — it can’t be a one-off for us Helen Housby (below)