Shannon Eagland admits there was a time she wondered if she would ever reach 50 national netball league matches.
The popular West Coast Fever defender brought up the milestone in Sunday’s six-goal loss to the Queensland Firebirds.
It has been a tough ride for the 29-year-old Victorian, who came to Fever ahead of the 2017 launch of Suncorp Super Netball after three years out of top-level netball.
Eagland ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee four games in her debut season at the club, but fought back to be named in the club’s leadership group in 2018 as they went on to a maiden Grand Final.
“It has been quite a journey and I wondered maybe in 2017 whether I was even going to get back out on the court after doing my knee in that year but I’m super proud to get to 50 games, especially with this club,” Eagland said. “They’re a real family club and I’ve felt at home ever since I’ve been here so I’m really happy about that.”
Eagland again showed her versatility against the Firebirds, coming off the bench into Wing Defence and then shifting into Goal Defence to match up on Gretel Tippett.
“A bit of both and that’s fine because that’s what we practice at training, to obviously throw things around,” Eagland said. “We do five centre passes and throw it around and then do another five. It keeps you on your toes but that’s what we play for.
“Gretel’s certainly a tough one to match up on. She’s very athletic, she’s a little bit different with her basketball background and the way that she plays.”
Eagland said the fourth quarter was what had cost them in the Firebirds clash.
“It’s being able to execute consistently for the whole game and what’s let us down often is the fact that if we let a stray pass go, we have to let two stray passes go in a row and opposition are punishing us on the scoreboard for that,” she said. “We’ve got to do that to opposition. When we win ball, we’ve got to obviously punish as well and execute when we do have the ball in hand and make sure that we do get it through the goal every time.”
Eagland said Fever were determined to finish the season on a high when they take on Giants Netball at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney on Saturday.
“Giants are going to be starving hungry for the win, I think,” Eagland said. “So we’ve got to do it for ourselves and for all the hard yakka we’ve put in since late last year. We’ve been going for months and we’ve seen it in training and it’s about showing ourselves that we can do it for four quarters because we’ve worked really hard for it.”
