The Trident Homes Tactix are enjoying one of their best ever regular seasons but will take time out this weekend to celebrate the region’s netball Alumni during Sunday’s ANZ Premiership must-see match against the MG Mystics. Legacy players like Maree Bowden, Vilimaina Davu, Belinda Charteris, Julie Seymour and Anna Kennedy will receive their badges and help mark the occasion. We talk to Bowden – Tactix #1 and former Flames midcourter – about what it meant to be a netballer in the Mainland.
Maree Bowden rode two very different waves during her netball career in the red-and-black dress and she says she wouldn’t change a thing about either ride.
Netball’s Alumni from the Mainland region will be celebrated this weekend with players and management from the Flames-Tactix eras presented with special badges at Sunday’s ANZ Premiership game between the Tactix and Mystics at Wolfbrook Arena.
Bowden, a Flames and Tactix midcourter who went on to represent her country as a Silver Fern, will be part of the celebrations and says this weekend will be an “amazing opportunity” to catch up with people for some serious “netty chat”.
“First and foremost we know that sport is about the people and it’s going to be great to connect with some pretty special people this weekend,” she says.
Bowden, who is also a commentator for netball on Sky Sport, admits she hasn’t seen some of those former team-mates since they were putting on the Flames or Tactix’ dresses and heading into battle together.
But it’s those team-mates which made her 13-year career so memorable, more so than any results on court.
And the first team-mate to spring to mind is Flames and Silver Ferns legend Vilimaina Davu.
“Not only was it her loud laugh but just her amazing energy. She was just someone you were always going to remember,” Bowden says.
“I still remember our captains runs during our Flames days and honestly the defence would go so hard out, the attack didn’t know what had hit them – I remember thinking ‘aren’t we supposed to be playing today’.
“Davu would come flying out of the circle and you could hear her footsteps coming.”
She is a player hard to forget.
“When she came into the team it was quite new then to have someone from Fiji. And then she went on to be hugely successful as a Silver Fern. Davu’s someone who just stood out.”
Making her first Flames squad in 1999, Bowden says it was a different sporting landscape to when the game she loved became her job in the new era of the Tactix in 2008.
When she arrived on the semi-professional scene with the Flames there were players including Belinda Colling, Julie Seymour, Anna Galvan, Cate Sexton and Tash Hansen.
“I was just this young buck with all these amazing, experienced players,” she says.
It meant two nights of training with the team – on a Tuesday and Thursday – and the rest of her training schedule was done by herself as she juggled either fulltime study or work.
The Flames enjoyed a successful era of netball for the region, reaching the national league final on four occasions, and while the results were hard to come by in the early years of the Tactix, Bowden says the team was just as memorable.
“They were challenging times but I still one hundred per cent say to everyone that I would never change that because I think it makes you the person that you are today. Going through the adversity, the ups and downs, and still coming through with a positive mindset and belief.
“I wouldn’t change that part of my life for anything, I absolutely loved it.”
The loyal Cantabrian, who has spent the last three years in Japan with her husband Pete and young son Parker, says she has loved nothing more than seeing the form of the Tactix in this year’s ANZ Premiership.
“I just think they have this strong mental resolve this year,” she says. “They get themselves into situations that they wouldn’t usually be able to get themselves out of – they’ve got that ability to get themselves out of it now. I know there’s been a lot said in the camp around that mindset and I definitely think there’s been a massive shift there.
“The challenge now is how we keep on building and keep that momentum going.”
Having the support of the region would help, she says. Bowden called the extra time win over the Pulse in Round 10 for Sky Sport and was full of praise for the fans who helped lift the Tactix over the line.
“The support was phenomenal and I’m hoping it will be the same this weekend against the Mystics.”
She says a home Grand Final would be “sensational” and bring plenty of good energy to the region and any aspiring Tactix netballers.
“What a buzz it would be – hosting a Grand Final puts the players in front of kids and you want kids to aspire to be Tactix players and then Silver Ferns. It just brings a whole lot of energy with it and our region would fully celebrate it.”
Bowden continues to celebrate athletes in all areas of sport and on her return home to Christchurch, she has taken up a new role as Transition PDM for the New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association where she can continue the things she loves most about sport.
“I still love working with athletes, love working in sport and love being part of a team – all the same things that meant so much to me with the Flames and Tactix.”
- The Trident Homes Tactix meet the MG Mystics at Wolfbrook Arena on Sunday, starting at 4pm.
