Netball: Being a mum top priority for old hand

By Suzanne McFadden

Leonie Leaver knew it was time to retire from netball when she saw her daughter asleep on the wooden stadium floor.

The charismatic ex-Silver Fern shooter yesterday decided to call it a day after 20 years on court.

The 34-year-old mum of two realised that she had to rethink her priorities during a night training session with the Auckland Diamonds last month. "I had to take my five-year-old, Brooke, to training because she wasn't well. Then I looked over and found her asleep on the court," Leaver said. "I found I was always running out the door - basically my life was netball.

"But then I realised that I'm a mother first, and it's time to put all my effort and energy into the kids before they've grown up."

Leaver made herself unavailable for next week's Star Series against England because she wanted to spend more time with Brooke, three-year-old Damon, and her husband, Mark, a former New Zealand hockey player. Then Leaver decided that was it. "I'm happy, because I ended on a high note," she said. Leaver was one of the top three shooters in the accuracy stakes in the Coca-Cola Cup.

Her retirement comes around the same time as some of her former New Zealand team-mates from the early 1990s - formidable goal-keep Tanya Cox and feisty midcourter Margaret Foster, who suffered a serious knee injury last month. Another fellow Fern, Julie Carter, was also talking of giving up after her Southern Sting side won the cup a week ago.

Fijian-born Leaver had a four-year international career, which ended when she fell pregnant with Brooke.

But even when she was not in the New Zealand side she remained one of netball's favourite daughters, recognised for her zany habits - clapping for herself after scoring a goal, eyeballing her opponents, and using her sharp elbows and hips to make space. One of Leaver's favourite memories was winning the national title with Auckland for nine straight years: "You could never forget that, we were unstoppable."

But one of her great achievements was coming back from injury. Last season, two minutes into a game for New Zealand A, she snapped an Achilles tendon, but fought back to play this year.

Leaver has not finished with netball, though - she would like to coach next year.

"After playing alongside some young girls in the Diamonds I feel its time to help from the sideline," she said.

And one day, even coach her daughter.