She's The Boss: Ellis Puts Kiwis On Edge

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday November 9, 2007

Jane Marshall in Auckland

IF SHE wasn't Australian, Liz Ellis would probably be admired by more New Zealand netball fans.

The Australian defender has been on hand for some of the Silver Ferns' most harrowing defeats - the 1999 world championship and 2002 Commonwealth Games finals to name a couple.

It makes the 34-year-old Australian captain public enemy No. 1 when she leads her side into action in the 2007 world championship, which starts tomorrow.

So it comes as a surprise to learn Ellis names a Kiwi as one of her most admired heroes: Mount Everest-conquering New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary.

"It is allowed, you know," she said. "You can admire whoever you like, just don't get too carried away with that."

Ellis has had her own Everest to climb recently. A debilitating knee injury threatened to prematurely end her career in 2005. She hobbled off court during Australia's record 25-goal loss to NZ in Auckland two years ago. Ruptured ligaments required surgery to repair the damage.

It left her sidelined at a time when her team was at a real "low point" and she was forced to watch from the stands as Australia lost to the Silver Ferns five months later in the Commonwealth Games gold-medal match.

But Ellis was determined not to let an injury dictate the length of her sporting career.

"I was always going to try and come back from the knee 'reco'," she said. "I didn't like the idea of just walking away without giving it a shot."

Plus she was past the idea of finding a "real job". The former Sydney solicitor is now working at the grassroots of the game with her own netball clinics for aspiring players.

Former captain and playing partner Kathryn Harby-Williams said Ellis was as important for Australian netball off the court as she was on it.

"The Australian netball team struggles to have a profile and the only players that people recognise are Liz Ellis and to a smaller degree Sharelle McMahon," she said.

"You need players like Liz to lift the sport to a level where the actual team is recognised."

But on the court, Harby-Williams believes the feisty goalkeeper has brought a settling influence back to the Australian side since returning from injury, which has played its part in recent performances.

"She's someone you want to play the game with," she said. "At that level, it's all about winning and you just know that she will not give up until that final whistle goes. Even if it looks like a dire situation, she can still pull in that match-winning intercept."

Harby-Williams said Ellis was a "win at all costs" kind of player and someone who could turn a game. "She's just a competitive beast," she said.

Ellis openly admits she is "bossy", a trait that got her into trouble when she first tied on a netball bib for the Green Hills club - a small club she is still a member of and regularly visits. "I was really bossy," she said laughing. "I wanted every second pass."

Bossy, maybe, but according to Australian coach Norma Plummer, Ellis has a "great heart".

"She just jumps and jumps and jumps," said Plummer.

Ellis did, however, need some guidance early on in her career and thanks former coach Joyce Brown for keeping her on the "straight and narrow".

"Joyce was really good for me from a discipline point of view," Ellis said. "I was a bit all over the shop when she got hold of me - probably a bit too much to say."

But over the next seven days, Ellis will be happy to let the scoreboard do all the talking.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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