Silver Fern Amelia Walmsley and Australia's Courtney Bruce battle for possession in the opening Constellation Cup netball test in Melbourne. Photo: James Ross / www.photosport.nz
Silver Ferns shooter Amelia Walmsley knows 2025 could be a big year for her but she's concentrating on the upcoming international season first.
Walmsley had a whirlwind 2023 where she debuted against England at just 19, and looks like the most likely candidate to step up as New Zealand's starting goal shooter next year.
Incumbent shooter Grace Nweke will be ineligible to play for New Zealand in 2025 because she's playing in the Australian domestic competition.
When the news broke that the star shooter would be playing in the highly competitive Suncorp Super Netball league, Walmsley's first thought was that it was a great opportunity for Nweke.
But Walmsley also had the realisation that she could wear the pivotal goal shoot bib for the Silver Ferns in 2025.
"That thought has crossed my mind a bit. I'm kind of just focussing on this year and we'll just get to that when it comes to it next year but it definitely is a potential great opportunity for me to try to step up, depends what that looks like but yeah just really excited for her, it's a great opportunity," Walmsley said.
The 20-year-old did a good job of controlling her nerves when she made her international debut against England last year, after a break out season in the ANZ Premiership.
"I tried not to apply as much pressure on myself, I just wanted to enjoy myself and it's such an honour and a privilege so I just wanted to make sure that I was really present at the time and really soaked it all in."
Walmsley was then preferred over the vastly more experienced Maia Wilson, to hold down the goal shoot position in the Constellation Cup against Australia, while star shooter Nweke worked her way back from injury.
The teenager had to stand tall against menacing Australian defender Courtney Bruce, one of the best players on the planet.
"She's definitely a great player I have a lot of respect for her, she's difficult to play against and she's really smart let's say when the umpire is not looking," Walmsley laughs.
"It was definitely a challenge but always up for a challenge."
Coming back from her World Cup ending injury, Nweke built up to a full game in the final test of the Constellation Cup. Nweke then played every single minute of the Silver Ferns four Tests at the Nations Cup in January this year, while Walmsley didn't see any court time.
Silver Ferns Amelia Walmsley (L) with England's Halimat Adio Photo: Photosport
The 20-year-old had a disrupted domestic season after suffering a knee injury, which ruled her out for a number of weeks. But despite that she still felt made improvements to her game.
"It was my first major injury and navigating that was quite a learning curve, it taught me a lot mentally and dealing with different kinds of pressure coming back from an injury.
"I felt I made not only mental gains but also coming back at the crunch end of the season ...three of the hardest games and then the final as well. I knew I couldn't afford to come on and try and find my way again, I just had to really get on court and hit it from the mark so I definitely felt I made gains despite the interruption."
At 1.92m tall Walmsley has been seen as an out-and-out goal shoot coming through the ranks, but played a few games at goal attack at the start of this year's ANZ Premiership when the Pulse needed injury cover.
"It was definitely not expected but my coach and I had spoken about it at the beginning of the year wanting it to be an area I worked on. With Tiana [Metuarau] getting injured it meant that I had the opportunity to step up into that goal attack role and it was new for me to navigate but I think it was a great opportunity for me to continue to expand in that area.
"I had worked a little bit on goal attack in the Silver Ferns space during training but very inexperienced in that role at the higher levels."
Walmsley would be open to playing more as she knows playing two positions will give her more opportunity to get out on court.
She's hoping to add to her five Test caps when the Silver Ferns meet England at the end of the month and Australia in October, so she can test herself against the best.
"You always have to back yourself, there's always going to be a sense of confidence there but after having some experience against them it definitely gives me more confidence in kind of knowing what I'm going up against but it's always unpredictable it's always going to be a challenge and really difficult ...but just having a little taste of what it was like at the end of last year definitely gives me more confidence going into it this time.
"I've spoken quite closely with the coaching staff around certain areas that I want to work on and focus on for these upcoming tours so I've got things to work towards whether that's on court in game or in training as well."
The first Test between the Silver Ferns and England is on 29 September in Auckland.
