KEY POINTS:
Silver Ferns defender Sheryl Scanlan must be fond of exclusive clubs. She is one of only two current Ferns to have started the world championship final four years ago with Irene van Dyk, marking her performance with a crucial late intercept that is often forgotten in favour of Temepara George's more celebrated steal.
And she's surely one of few proud born-and-bred Westies who have never watched an episode of Outrageous Fortune.
"I've seen all the ads but I've never watched it," Scanlan says of the show that cleaned up at the recent New Zealand Television Awards.
But a Westie she is, sans the black jeans, and she'll have her extended clan in the stands for the world netball champs that start at Waitakere's Trusts Stadium - just five minutes from her home - on Saturday.
"My whole family lives out west so it's so exciting for me, being a true Westie," she says.
West Auckland, family, church and sport, particularly netball, have been the constants in Scanlan's life.
Before she married Malcolm, she was Sheryl Clarke - probably better known then as the sister of 10-test All Black Eroni.
Those extraordinary sporting genes come from their Samoan parents Iafeta and Tueipi.
"[Iafeta] was in the Manu Samoa team that won their first-ever gold medal at the South Pacific Games," Scanlan says proudly.
"He also played club rugby for Suburbs and he was in the team that won their first Gallaher Shield. It's funny. You've got the photo of Dad's team on the clubroom wall right next to a photo of Eroni's team, who also won the Gallaher Shield. It's so cool."
Tueipi was a netballer and softballer of some note in the islands.
Given their proud Samoan heritage the surname Clarke is a curiosity, and one Scanlan can only partly explain.
"I think it's Irish. My grandfather is fully white with blue eyes but he can't speak English," she laughs.
"I'm terrible when it comes to my family tree but it could even be from when the Germans were there."
Scanlan finds it easier to trace her world championship credentials, back to that bitter night in Christchurch in 1999 when the difference between New Zealand winning the worlds and losing was a few millimetres of steel that prevented Donna Loffhagen's shot from dropping.
New Zealand were sunk that night by the indomitable Sharelle McMahon, who will again be donning a GA bib this time around.
It's no surprise Scanlan describes her as her toughest opponent.
Scanlan has a reputation for being one of the nicest, most unfailingly polite people on this planet - and an hour in her company only confirms it - so it's pointless trying to elicit controversy from her. But she briefly allows herself a guilty pleasure when she describes McMahon as "sneaky" in the way she not only plays the game, but deals with referees.
Granted, it's hardly up there with "scrubber" as a term of un-endearment but Scanlan needs little extra motivation when playing the Australian superstar.
"We've had a lot of good tussles. She's an amazing athlete, exciting to watch. She has a presence about her."
It's no surprise then that Scanlan has a dream scenario, one which has the scores tied in the final and the Silver Ferns' defender tipping McMahon's shot, and the ball fizzing to the other end for the game winner.
"I'd love that," Scanlan says, smiling broadly.
If you'd asked Scanlan 18 months ago, fresh into motherhood, if she'd be around for these champs you would have met with a lukewarm response.
But here she is, at Trusts Stadium, preparing for another crack at the game's glittering prize.
On the eve of the team announcement - she was effectively in a one-on-one battle with Anna Scarlett for the final defender's spot - she couldn't face staying at home and waiting for the call so she dragged her husband to the movies, any movie.
It turned out to be Transformers, a word any new mother can relate to as they try to claw themselves from the rigours of childbirth and motherhood to being an international sportsperson.
"During my pregnancy, the first thing I thought was 'yes, I'm going to get a break from netball', but then I soon discovered I really missed it and wanted to get back into it.
"After my son was born I had three months off and decided to start training to try to make the National Bank Cup.
"As for the Silver Ferns, I thought it would be too hard but why not give it a shot because I'm not getting any younger," she says.
When she finally got the affirming call from Ruth Aitken, Scanlan admits to crying buckets.
At 30, she says her experience has taught her never to say never. That's why she refuses to label this year's tournament as her world championship swansong. She'll only be 34 next time around; and given that Julie Seymour is 36 now and Irene van Dyk 35, why not?
"I've still got a few years ahead, so I don't know. This is my third world champs and if you asked me at the '99 world champs I wouldn't have thought I would be still here."
Pregnancy and childbirth have done wonders for Scanlan. She says she has never worked harder at her fitness, has never been more motivated than she has been since the arrival of Jafeth (the Anglicisation of her father's name Iafeta is Japeth but a friend had taken the name, so Jafeth was chosen instead).
"I've matured more this time. I'm more determined with my training."
But don't call her an elder statesperson in the defence circle. She says that although Casey Williams, 22, and Joline Henry, 25, are younger and more inexperienced than she is (Leana de Bruin is 60 days older than Scanlan), "they're extremely mature and I'll look to them for guidance as much as they'll look to me".
"We've all got high expectations of each other."
So has the rest of the country.
"A lot of people have been saying to me 'it's all on you guys, you guys are the only ones left now'.
"I guess there is a bit of pressure there but the biggest pressure on us is the pressure we put on ourselves."
Given that that exact phrasing was repeated to this newspaper by a Netball New Zealand staffer just hours after the interview, you can draw the conclusion that this is a well-rehearsed mantra, but that doesn't make it any less genuine.
"We've got high expectations of each other and know how hard we've worked to get here," Scanlan continues. "We expect to do really well."
Netball having just three teams that can realistically win - Australia, New Zealand and, at a pinch, England - doing "really well" means nothing less than a championship.
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