With the view to keeping all her options open, moving to Wellington couldn’t have turned out any better for shooter Grace Namana as she juggles her netball and law careers.
Originally from Rotorua, the former NZ Secondary Schools player boarded at St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton before going on to graduate as a lawyer. She has since embraced a busy lifestyle pursuing her on-court and in-court careers in Christchurch and Dunedin where she also played for the Mainland and South National Netball League teams.
As a training partner with the Southern Steel, Namana had a memorable starting debut at the elite level last season, delivering a standout performance when potting an impressive 35 goals from 38 attempts.
With the move to Wellington in the off-season, Namana, 27, has quickly found her niche with the Central Manawa team in the Synergy Hair Netball League while also being a training partner for Te Wānanga o Raukawa Pulse.
"I obviously would love to get a contract with the Pulse but if that doesn’t work out, Wellington, in the legal sense, had so many amazing opportunities that I could pursue and that’s why I originally put the feelers out to come here,"she said.
That has worked a treat on both fronts, including Namana adjusting to learning the new role of goal attack after predominantly sporting the goal shoot bib during her career. And in her day job, she’s also found an equally rewarding new challenge.
Moving from family law, in Dunedin, Namana has transitioned from having individuals as clients to entities in her role with Te arawhiti, the Crown for Māori relations which involves improving the relationship between the Crown and Māori.
"I love the Manawa team, it’s a real high performance environment,’’ she said. "We’re always asking ourselves how can we do better, how can we perform better and we don’t shy away from the performance conversations.
"The calibre of coaching that I’m receiving is just fantastic. I’m not saying that my other coaching was not fantastic but the different coaching styles of what I’ve learnt up here has been invaluable and it’s given me a different perspective.
"Ans (coach, Anna Andrews-Tasola) is very technical, straight to the point and I can ask her anything and it’s welcomed. She has given me a lot of time and I really appreciate that while helping me down-pack my goal attack game.
"It’s a bit taxing on my lungs sometimes but I’m really happy with how I’ve progressed. I’ve had some milestones here…..I’ve hit a personal best for a yoyo test which has helped immensely and it’s just knowing that I can reasonably comfortably switch between both positions now, rather than just relying on one position. I need to be able to be diverse, so it’s been a really good transition.
"It has been frustrating at times because it doesn’t always go to plan but when it clicks, it’s so rewarding.’’
Manawa are keen to keep their unbeaten record intact when they meet Waikato Bay of Plenty in Tauranga on Saturday. Manawa posted a comfortable 11-goal win against the same opponents two weeks ago.
"It would be ignorant of us if we took them lightly,’’ Namana said. "They will have done their homework on us but we’re adaptable, smart players and we’ve done our homework as well. We know what we need to execute and will be working hard to stick to our game plan to be successful.’’