Heffernan said reuniting with Georgia has been a highlight of the week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got in on Tuesday, and we\u2019d been counting down that whole day. I was giving her updates on how far away I was, and everyone said she was a bit antsy and waiting for me to get there. It\u2019s so nice to be back together.<\/p>\n
Seeing double: Georgia (left) and Kate Heffernan aren’t used to being apart. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did miss each other a lot, but it was great to see us both doing our thing. We\u2019re so used to having each other to lean on, and I think it was pretty good for us to have to find our own way and be a bit more independent. She absolutely thrived this year at the Steel<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Heffernan said she\u2019s had an incredible past few days.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a whirlwind, but awesome to finish on a highlight there after a pretty awesome season. To go back to Adelaide and celebrate with the group; we had the parade with the fans and the awards night. It\u2019s an awesome group of people.\u201d<\/p>\n The Silver Ferns jet out to Manchester tomorrow, where they will spend 10 days before shifting to Glasgow.<\/p>\n Heffernan\u2019s success came as no surprise to New Zealand coach Dame Noeline Taurua.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s gone into a really awesome team with amazing individuals, which has helped her growth but also her character as well, to go into that space wanting to learn and to be better and contribute to the team. She\u2019s had a boomer.\u201d<\/p>\n Heffernan loved Australia and said her Adelaide teammates put in plenty of effort to make her feel comfortable off the court.<\/p>\n In particular, the Invercargill local bonded with flatmate and fellow new Thunderbirds import, South African goal shoot Elmere van der Berg.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a bit nervous going over, being away from all my people and from the first couple of trainings, I was like, \u2018this feels really good\u2019. I grew in confidence really fast, settled in really fast as well. Even in preseason, we were looking at each other like, \u2018this could be something pretty special\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not a big city girl, so Adelaide\u2019s a bit more slow-paced, bigger than what I\u2019m used to, but I think that helped me settle in and they looked after me very well.\u201d<\/p>\n The 26-year-old said getting the nod from her Silver Ferns teammates as vice-captain ahead of the Commonwealth Games is a special honour.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to working with Karin and the whole group of girls. It\u2019s so good to be back here. I can\u2019t wait to get started, and I think there\u2019s such an exciting group coming through. We\u2019ve got the balance; we\u2019ve got a real core that\u2019s been there for quite a while now.<\/p>\n \u201cThinking back to the last World Cup, the last Comm Games, there\u2019s quite a few girls that have come through that and the last couple of years. Then we\u2019ve added some youth and some really exciting players.\u201d<\/p>\n Heffernan is well accustomed to the pressures of pinnacle events. The midcourter made her international debut at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, and also won midcourter of the tournament at the 2023 World Cup in South Africa.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m more aware of what\u2019s to come and feel more prepared, and I have a lot of confidence coming off the last couple of years in Ferns as well as this year with the Thunderbirds. I\u2019m raring to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Heffernan wore the centre bib for the Thunderbirds but usually starts at wing defence for the Ferns. She often slides to centre in the latter stages of tests, and said she loves both positions.<\/p>\n \u201cPlaying between that wing defence and that centre role is something I\u2019m excited to really nail. We\u2019ve got lots of options, but it\u2019s going to be good, and I\u2019m happy in either.\u201d<\/p>\n Heffernan did not shy away from addressing the tougher issues netball faces in New Zealand. The ANZ Premiership\u2019s future remains in doubt,<\/a> with Netball NZ currently negotiating its future after the expiration of its broadcast deal with TVNZ.<\/p>\n Having played in both Super Netball and the ANZ Premiership,<\/a> Heffernan said the Australian competition is a clear step up.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re always hunting for more over there, and I think we can keep pushing. The girls deserve more in New Zealand. Young girls playing netball need to have a league to look at; we need girls playing netball.<\/p>\n \u201cIt definitely is a shame it\u2019s in such a tough place, but I think hopefully we can keep fighting and get a good league next year.\u201d<\/p>\n Heffernan and Ferns shooter Grace Nweke applauded the Northern Mystics\u2019 bid to enter Super Netball.<\/a><\/p>\n The 2026 ANZ Premiership champions revealed to the Herald they put in a bid to join the Australian domestic competition<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n Last year, Netball Australia (NA) requested expressions of interest to add two more teams to Super Netball in 2027, growing the competition to 10 sides. However, the expansion was delayed until at least 2028 because of extended television rights negotiations. NA has since signed a five-year free-to-air deal with Nine through to the end of 2031.<\/p>\n Nathan Limm<\/a> has been a journalist with Newstalk ZB and the NZ Herald since 2020. He covered the Netball World Cup in Cape Town in 2023, hosts The Big League Podcast<\/a> and commentates rugby and netball for Gold Sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heffernan said reuniting with Georgia has been a highlight of the week. \u201cI got in on Tuesday, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1443,13956,95,12465,6028,51038,13114,4731,2837,33736,10541,3273,6489,33611,145503,296,2517,16762,111,139,69,90,1864,184538,74830,7457,213,313,169243,53781,5977,6444],"class_list":["post-517397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-about","tag-ambition","tag-and","tag-anz","tag-champion","tag-commonwealth","tag-crowned","tag-days","tag-during","tag-fern","tag-ferns","tag-future","tag-games","tag-glasgow","tag-heffernan","tag-into","tag-kate","tag-netball","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-opened","tag-premierships","tag-preparation","tag-silver","tag-sports","tag-super","tag-thrust","tag-vicecaptain","tag-which","tag-whirlwind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517397","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=517397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Silver Fern Kate Heffernan (right) alongside Adelaide Thunderbirds teammate Elmere van der Berg after beating the Melbourne Vixens in the Super Netball final. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Kate Heffernan gained tournament experience at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games and the 2023 World Cup in South Africa. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n