{"id":494239,"date":"2026-06-25T03:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/494239\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T03:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:50:13","slug":"anz-premiership-northern-mystics-charlotte-manley-on-health-battles-resilience-and-grand-final-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/494239\/","title":{"rendered":"ANZ Premiership: Northern Mystics\u2019 Charlotte Manley on health battles, resilience and grand final role"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Mystics go into Saturday\u2019s ANZ Premiership grand final as favourites against the gritty Southern Steel<\/a>, Manley is preparing to play a pivotal role for the three-time champions.<\/p>\n

\"CharlotteCharlotte Manley, aka Scotty, has found her place in the Mystics’ defensive circle next to veteran Phoenix Karaka in the second half of the ANZ Premiership season. Photo \/ Michael Bradley Photography<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one wants to see their friend or teammate get injured, especially Cat,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are no hard feelings there at all. She\u2019s so supportive \u2013 she\u2019ll quietly say to me, \u2018Scotty, you need to do this\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manley\u2019s nickname comes from her Glaswegian mum, who played netball in Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been exciting to really step up and prove to myself that I\u2019m my own player,\u201d the New Zealand Under-21 player says.<\/p>\n

The one problem Manley has, Mystics assistant coach Rob Wright says, is she doesn\u2019t realise the extent of her talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep telling her she doesn\u2019t know how good she is \u2013 she\u2019s going to be a star,\u201d he says. \u201cShe\u2019s so athletic, and her speed across the ground is electric.<\/p>\n

\"CharlotteCharlotte Manley (GK) and Catherine Hall (GD) could become the defensive mainstays of the Mystics in future. Photo \/ Michael Bradley<\/p>\n

\u201cHer closing speed is her real strength \u2013 she reminds me of [former Australian Diamond] Julie Corletto. She will say \u2018I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m very quick\u2019, but it\u2019s phenomenal how fast her feet are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manley\u2019s breakout moment, Wright says, came in the Mystics\u2019 57-51 win over the South Auckland-based Stars, when she first stepped into Hall\u2019s shoes. Her two intercepts, two rebounds and seven deflections earned her player of the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I love most about her is she\u2019s real comfortable in her own skin,\u201d he says. \u201cShe\u2019s quirky and different, and happy to be herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

If she hadn\u2019t stuck with netball, Manley reckons she could have been a dab hand at driving trucks and cranes. Her dad, Deane Manley, is the founding director of NZ Crane Hire, where Manley works part-time in the office. \u201cI\u2019d make a really good crane operator,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"Steel\u2019sSteel\u2019s Georgia Heffernan and Mystics\u2019 Charlotte Manley will renew their battle in Saturday\u2019s grand final. Photo \/ Michael Bradley<\/p>\n

She started studying for a business degree three years ago, then switched to psychology. \u201cBut I was self-diagnosing by the second week,\u201d she says. Next semester, she plans to start again studying human nutrition and exercise science, extramurally through Massey University.<\/p>\n

That choice of study is no coincidence. Last year, Manley found herself battling Red-S syndrome, a condition where athletes don\u2019t eat enough to balance the energy they expend. She became aware of it after repeated injury niggles, bouts of illness and no menstrual cycle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realised I hadn\u2019t had a cycle in a year-and-a-half, and I wasn\u2019t eating well \u2013 like one meal a day at one point,\u201d Manley, who came off the bench in five Mystics games last season, says. \u201cThe workshops we do around Red-S and low energy availability are really helpful, but I didn\u2019t realise how deep I was in it. It\u2019s exactly why I want to get into nutrition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manley also underwent major surgery for debilitating endometriosis two years ago \u2013 setting her back in her first season as a Mystics training partner. \u201cI was trying to get back on the court, but I could barely run, I couldn\u2019t hold myself upright, and that was really hard for me,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t realise the reaction my body would have to such invasive surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the team management were so supportive, altering my trainings and helping me get my confidence to jump again. Now I\u2019m such an advocate for young women to get checked out for endo.\u201d<\/p>\n

This season, though, has been illness and incident-free \u2013 and full of opportunity. Typically a goal keep, Manley is enjoying the challenge of playing at goal defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat used to scare me \u2013 I always liked being in the back. But the more I talk to Rob [Wright] about it, the more I realised that\u2019s where I will end up as I keep playing. I definitely feel like I can do more out there than back in the circle. So I\u2019ll keep at it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The prospect of Manley and Hall shoring up the Mystics defence in the future makes both Wright and Manley happy.<\/p>\n

\"CharlotteCharlotte Manley stamped her mark on the 2026 ANZ Premiership against the Stars in round six. Photo \/ Michael Bradley<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really excited for Cat to come back,\u201d she says. \u201cWe can switch back and forth between goal defence and goal keep just to keep our opposition on their toes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall, a year older, first played with Manley in the Northern Marvels, the Mystics\u2019 feeder side, in 2023. \u201cWe were together in the circle and we\u2019d often flip around,\u201d Manley, who then played for Auckland with Hall and was first fully contracted to the Mystics last season, says.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s my closest friend in the team so being able to go on this journey with her, and follow on similar stepping stones, has been really inspiring for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manley is also thankful to Mystics veteran goal keep Phoenix Karaka and wing defence and captain Michaela Sokolich-Beatson for supporting her make the transition mid-season from a bench player to a starting circle defender.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhoenix has been my anchor, helping me get my confidence and get my footing at goal defence,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to see Phoenix is still learning things in her career, so it reassures me it\u2019s okay I haven\u2019t learned everything yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Manley\u2019s parents were netballers \u2013 her mum played in Scotland, while her dad played indoor netball here. Her brother Cameron Manley, though, was a track cyclist who won Oceania medals riding for New Zealand.<\/p>\n

She first played netball at six with Auckland club College Rifles \u2013 but it was one of many sports she had a go at. \u201cAt Meadowbank Primary, I didn\u2019t get to go to Aims Games in netball, but I thought I just played it for fun,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Yet her father reminded her just last week that as a 10-year-old, she ran home from school with the news that Irene van Dyk had retired from international netball: \u201cI said I\u2019m going to be the next Silver Ferns goal shoot. It\u2019s my time.\u2019 I was clearly delusional \u2013 I\u2019m not a shooter.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut maybe one day, fingers crossed, I\u2019ll be a Silver Fern at the other end of the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she reached high school at Saint Kentigern College, Manley was torn between netball and athletics. An exceptional sprinter, she ran 27.11s for 200m in Whanganui in 2018 \u2013 earning an age-group world ranking.<\/p>\n

The decision was made for her not long after that run, when she dislocated her knee in a 400m race, and never returned to her original form. \u201cI realised I didn\u2019t love running that much, it was quite a lonely sport,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When she was invited to the New Zealand secondary schools netball camp, but didn\u2019t make the team, she feared her netball career was over, too. \u201cIt was quite hard at the time, because I had a coach who\u2019d just told me I wouldn\u2019t make it out of secondary school netball,\u201d she recalls. \u201cBoth of those things put up a big barrier for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she was grateful when her high school coach, Natalie Milicich \u2013 who\u2019d also coached Singapore and Auckland \u2013 encouraged her to try out for the Marvels in the National Netball League.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe knew I\u2019d struggled mentally with netball and with my own mental health issues and she really pushed me to try out. So I can thank her for being here in a way, because I probably would have just stopped, or been happy to play club netball,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Manley is also grateful to her high school teammate, Khanye-Lii Munro-Nonoa, a Steel defender who she will come up against this weekend. \u201cWe still have each other\u2019s backs, we still talk about how hard training is,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve made a tight-knit group of friends with the New Zealand U21 side who won silver at last year\u2019s World Youth Cup in Gibraltar \u2013 alongside six other Premiership players, including Amelia Walmsley, Laura Balmer, Kate Taylor and Serina Daunakamakama.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all keep in contact every day,\u201d Manley says, \u201cwhich shows how friendships that come out of netball are so important in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz<\/a> and is republished with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Mystics go into Saturday\u2019s ANZ Premiership grand final as favourites against the gritty Southern Steel, Manley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[95,12465,34595,39200,5904,10813,134,14719,247447,14721,247446,111,139,7977,69,90,13180,12879,205,213,14720],"class_list":["post-494239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-and","tag-anz","tag-battles","tag-charlotte","tag-final","tag-grand","tag-health","tag-lockerroom","tag-manley","tag-mcfadden","tag-mystics","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northern","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-premiership","tag-resilience","tag-role","tag-sports","tag-suzanne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}