The WA Sport Awards enable the West Australian community to recognise excellence in sport and celebrate the achievements of WA sports people.
The Sport Star Award is the most prestigious sporting award that a West Australian athlete can win, and for the first time Jhaniele is both eligible and a finalist.
The Jamaican national captain relocated to WA in 2018 after signing with West Coast Fever to play in the Suncorp Super Netball League and has called the State home ever since.
In late 2024, Jhaniele announced her pregnancy and was expected to miss the 2025 season. Sadly, in January, the Fowler-Nembhard family were faced with the devastating news of pregnancy loss.
In Round Three of the SSN season, Jhaniele decided she was ready to return to the game she loves, rejoining Fever who had lost their first two games of the season.
The 36-year-old returned to the court and hadn’t missed a beat, her comeback igniting one of the most impressive season long campaigns by a team in netball history.
Fever went on to win 13 consecutive games, setting a new SSN and WA Sporting Team record.
In Round Seven, she became the first athlete to reach 9000 National League goals and despite missing the first two games, finished the season as the League’s top goal scorer with 841 goals. She shot at an extraordinary 98 per cent accuracy and averaged a goal a minute in every game, something unmatched by any other player.
Jhaniele was crowned the SSN Most Valuable Player for a sixth time in her career, and demonstrated her strength, resilience and courage in 2025.
As 2025 came to a close, West Coast Fever were able to make the very exciting announcement that Jhaniele is once again pregnant. Whilst her focus now shifts to the more important job of building her family, she will still be heavily involved in the Club.
Netball WA and West Coast Fever congratulate Jhaniele on this well-deserved achievement.
If successful, Jhaniele will become just the second netballer to receive the coveted honour, joining Gaye Teede (1971) on the honour roll.
The Sport Star Award will be revealed at the SportWest Awards on Thursday, 28 February.
