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Helen Housby: A fearless shooter embracing England Netball's Commonwealth Games title defence

Four years ago, Helen Housby scored the title-winning goal for England in the Commonwealth Games final; the team now must win seven matches in 10 days if they are to retain their title in Birmingham; England meet Trinidad & Tobago at noon to open their account

Helen Housby

In 2018, England beat Australia in the gold medal match of the Commonwealth games and underlined that they're a force to be reckoned with. The match was secured by a last-second goal from Helen Housby, it wasn't the first time she'd done that and it's unlikely to be the last...

Prior to England's title on the Gold Coast, either Australia or New Zealand had won every edition of the tournament at the multi-event games.

In netball, the Commonwealth Games shares almost equal significance with the Netball World Cup, given the nations that partake in it and netball's current exclusion from the Olympic Games.

As the next edition of the Games commences in Birmingham, Housby will be stepping out on court under the leadership of captain Nat Haythornthwaite and vice-captain Jo Harten.

Head coach Jess Thirlby will be the one putting the plans in place to try and steer England to seven successive victories in 10 days.

England's Helen Housby celebrates scoring the winning goal in the women's netball gold  medal match
Image: Housby celebrating the moment England won their gold medal on the Gold Coast

Following five group-stage matches, including a meeting with current world champions New Zealand, England will hope that they're moving into the semi-finals.

It's there that Housby and her fellow shooters Harten, Eleanor Cardwell and Sophie Drakeford-Lewis, may well be called upon to deliver match-winners again.

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The title-winning goal on the Gold Coast wasn't England's first of the tournament.

Harten had done the same against Jamaica in the semi-finals. It also wasn't the first of Housby's career, as she'd calmly slotted a Superleague championship-winning goal for Manchester Thunder in her younger days.

Team England Netball squad

Imogen Allison Eleanor Cardwell Jade Clarke
Sophie Drakeford-Lewis Stacey Francis-Bayman Layla Guscoth
Jo Harten (vice-captain) Helen Housby Laura Malcolm
Geva Mentor Nat Metcalf (captain) Eboni Usoro-Brown

So, what goes on in your head when a final turnover is made and the ball is heading towards you with seconds left on the clock?

Only Helen Housby can answer that question.

"It's very different being in the moment and how you think it would feel versus how it actually feels," Housby told Sky Sports.

"You're very aware of the situation but in that moment, you've got to do what you've got to do. Sticking to the process is the most important thing.

England's Helen Housby
Image: Housby knows what to do when it comes to title-winning goals

"It's a little bit of a combination," she continued, talking about a match-winning final shots which have no second chances.

"It's full of nothing other than the process of taking the shot. You don't really have time to think about anything else that's happening, but in the back of your mind you know that the whistle has blown and that the game is over after this shot.

"You do know the huge moment that it is, but you don't have time to think or worry about it too much because you've only got a couple of seconds to put the ball in the ring."

Housby has since spoken about the way in which that goal on the Gold Coast altered her own life.

"I'd say things changed overnight but it was probably instantaneously after the Commonwealth Games four years ago," she said to Team England.

"On the court I gained a lot of confidence from that win and went back to my club team feeling like a bit of a different player, a bit more self-belief in what I could do on the court.

"Then off the court, it went a bit crazy, especially with Instagram and a lot of eyes on me that weren't before and on England netball in general.

''It was really cool, but a bit daunting at first in the way it all exploded after that. But I've embraced it and it's been really fun to reach people."

Housby's profile, both in England and Australia where she plays her domestic netball for NSW Swifts, continues to grow.

She's one of the sport's most-recognised and high-profile names. However, her team-mates, friends and family will all tell you that she remains grounded and personable.

Team England - Commonwealth Games fixtures

Friday, July 29 England vs Trinidad & Tobago
Saturday, July 30 England vs Malawi
Monday, August 1 England vs Northern Ireland
Tuesday, August 2 England vs Uganda
Thursday, August 4 New Zealand vs England
Saturday, August 6 Semi-final
Sunday, August 7 Final

Like so many others Housby's route to the top of the sport came about through considerable family support, hard work and an opportunity being taken.

When Housby was 15-years-old, two former England international shooters turned coaches - Karen Greig and Tracey Neville - spotted her and gave her a chance.

"She was one of these players who was by no means a complete package, but she had something," Greig recalled to Sky Sports. "You looked at her and thought, where has she been? What kind of coaching has she had?

"At that point, she hadn't really had much [coaching] and I think that she had just been playing local league for a club."

I remember just seeing this kid on court who looked a little bit like Bambi! She was all legs and arms but one thing for me was, that shot. She had probably one of the best shooting arms in the game.
Tracey Neville (Image credit: Ben Lumley)

Greig instantly discussed this talented player with Neville, who was Manchester Thunder's head coach at the time, and together they went about bringing Housby into the Superleague franchise's set up.

"If you talk about an athlete who really wanted it from the start, Helen was it. She was so driven," Neville added.

"It was a five-hour round trip from Cumbria [to Thunder]. She did that five times a week for training and the high-performance programme and she never ever missed a session. She put the work in."

Meet Team England's Commonwealth Games netball squad
Meet Team England's Commonwealth Games netball squad

Get to know the athletes England Netball head coach Jess Thirlby has selected for Team England's title defence at this summer's Commonwealth Games.

Housby grew up in the Thunder environment and would go on to show exactly what she was made of in her first significant final of note, with a championship-winning last-second goal from distance.

The courage shown by Housby is something Greig singled out from the beginning and that her former coach at Thunder believes it's one of her greatest qualities as a player.

"She's fearless," said Greig. "Coming into Thunder, she didn't even know what Thunder was and she just was fearless. She didn't know who the players were that she was playing against.

"You quite often go up against a team and think that XYZ is playing, they can do this and they're capable of doing that. Helen didn't know about them. She just went out on court, did her job, and didn't care who she came up against."

Many years on, with a Commonwealth Games title, multiple Suncorp Super Netball titles and a Netball World Cup bronze medal in her possession, Housby is stepping back on a home court in one of netball's greatest competitions.

Like the mature athlete that she is now, Housby is approaching the fact England have multiple layers of pressure on their shoulders - through being the defending champions and the home team - in a measured manner.

"It's definitely a fresh competition and you've got to treat every game as a different game," she said.

"You're only as good as the next game that you play. However, conversely, I think that it would almost be unwise to ignore that we're reigning champions and we're going into a home competition with that title.

"The pressures [compared to not having that title] are slightly different in a way," Housby continued.

"The way that other teams look at us might be a bit different and you've got to take that into account or at least have a little think about it. Now, it might not change much about the way that you prepare or the way that you train, but having that in the back of your mind isn't really a bad thing.

"It's a fact at the end of the day and we want to be a team that's under that sort of pressure and that goes into competitions knowing that we're the reigning champions."

Concluding where we started with last-second championship-winning goals, is Housby ready for more of them? You bet.

"That pressure and that moment maybe isn't for everybody, not everybody likes that or wants it, but if you're a shooter it gets forced upon you quite often", she said.

"If you're ever in a situation, whether it's a high-level game or at any level, take a shot. You should always take that opportunity; whether it goes in or doesn't, it doesn't matter because the experience of doing that is more important.

"I know that I've missed shots and have definitely been relied upon before and not taken the shot. All that experience adds up, so that you know when you get into that situation again you can rely upon what's happened or have taken the learnings from before."

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