Former England Roses captain Ama Agbeze would have been playing netball in the United Kingdom right now had it not been for a late contract offer from the Northern Mystics.
Ama Agbeze captaining the England Roses in 2017. Photo: Photosport
Last week the Northern Mystics announced they had secured the services of England's Commonwealth Games-winning captain for the ANZ Premiership starting next month.
Agbeze, who has been living in New Zealand with her Kiwi husband, has been called into the team as an injury replacement for Michaela Sokolich-Beatson, who is recovering from a ruptured Achilles.
The Mystics are also without key defender and 2020 captain Phoenix Karaka, who recently had her first child and Mystics coach Helene Wilson was looking for someone with Agbeze's experience.
The 38-year-old must be one of the most well-travelled netballers on the planet, having plied her career around the world including in England's Netball Superleague, and the former trans-Tasman league.
Agbeze was about to head back to compete in the Vitality League before the Mystics offered her a contract, with the timing coming down to the wire.
"It was actually really tricky with the timing and I can only but take my hat off to the coach in the UK who basically almost released me to stay in New Zealand. I can't thank her enough and I think she probably made a sacrifice in terms of me as a person as opposed to making a decision based on me as a netballer so I'm really grateful but it was very tricky in terms of timing and contracting," Agbeze said.
Agbeze was invited to join the Mystics earlier this year in a training capacity, to assist them in their build-up to this year's Premiership.
It had been some time since she had been on a netball court so she was a little bit nervous.
"I'd been in lockdown in the UK and so I didn't have access to a gym or I hadn't been on a netball court since March last year so my netball fitness definitely was not very good and my general fitness, reasonable but definitely some things I needed to work on.
"I knew I wasn't in the right shape netball wise and so I think my main concern was just trying to get myself back to where I thought I needed to be and still it's an ongoing thing. So I wasn't really concerned with proving myself, more knowing what I could do and trying to get myself to be back to that standard."
Agbeze arrived in the country last August to join her husband. After finishing her two weeks of managed isolation, she went straight into the first Auckland-only lockdown.
"I'd just been in the UK for like six months of lockdown, and then did managed isolation and then got out into lockdown and thought what have I done ...but luckily obviously things eased up."
As soon as she could the former England Roses defender worked on getting her fitness back.
"I didn't realise how significant not having a gym available to you is ...so that was probably my main focus was to just try and get myself back into shape and then just enjoying summer in New Zealand. And spending time with my husband because over the years we've spent a lot of time apart because of netball and work."
Knowing that she wasn't ready to hang up her boots just yet, Agbeze wanted to get herself ready for a call-up to the 2021 UK Vitality Netball Superleague. But then the Mystics came calling and she's grateful for the way it's turned out.
"I'm counting my blessings because it has just given me the opportunity to stay in the same place as my husband. It's almost surreal sometimes when I'm walking on the beach that I am doing that because I know from friends and family in the UK that it's been really tough and it's been a miserable winter and only being allowed out for an hour a day to exercise and not getting to see things. It's just so fortunate that I have the opportunity to be here.
"It's certainly a challenge not having played since March (2020) when we went into lockdown in the UK. It's the longest period I've ever had away from netball, so it's just coming to terms with that confidence wise."
Ama Agbeze while she played for the Stars in 2018. Photo: Photosport
Incredibly, the Northern Mystics is the third New Zealand franchise Agbeze has played for and the sixth across both New Zealand and Australia.
A qualified lawyer, Agbeze was part of a group of England trailblazers who headed to the Southern Hemisphere to progress their netball careers.
Starting out in Australia, she played for the West Coast Fever (2008, 2011) and Melbourne Vixens (2009).
She moved to New Zealand to play for the Pulse in 2010, before returning in 2014 for another two seasons.
Post the old trans-Tasman league, she played at the Adelaide Thunderbirds in 2017 before coming back to New Zealand to play for the Northern Stars in 2018.
After the joy of captaining England to gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Agbeze spent much of 2019 dealing with an injury and the devastation of missing out on World Cup selection.
In February last year she was in the midst of a comeback in the UK, having not competed since May 2019 but after three rounds, Covid-19 ended the 2020 UK Vitality league.
"It was so frustrating because last year it was postponed and so as a player we were constantly thinking 'oh the league is going to come back, we'll have to keep on training in our gardens' which we did and then eventually it was cancelled, which was a real let down."
Ama Agbeze playing for the Pulse. Photo: Photosport
Agbeze said it was amazing to see the league get underway recently.
"There's so many people who haven't been able to play and so I think just to be able to see netball on the television has been great for them and just helped lift their spirits even though they can't get onto the netball court at the moment."
The Mystics will build a new defensive unit around captain Sulu Fitzpatrick, who was in fine form in the recent Constellation Cup victory over Australia.
"It's really exciting and just getting the opportunity to play with Sulu [Fitzpatrick] I think she reads the game really well and she's shown herself to be a great leader and performing on the international stage so I think that's just an exciting combination. And then there's just a lot of inexperienced players here but I think hopefully given the opportunity will step up so it's a good mix.
"And I think the culture - it's not really developing because some of the girls have been together for a while. It's an amalgamation of what's been previously and stepping that up but I think it's moving in the right direction and last season the team did really well but for a couple of injuries and so hopefully we can build on that for this season and move forward."
Agbeze said she was happy to delay retirement for as long as she could.
"I'm comfortable in that I've played for so long and got experience and so I can easily use that ...whereas if I go and do something else which eventually I will have to I won't be as experienced so I think it's just using my knowledge whilst I can."
Agbeze is a Commonwealth Games ambassador for the 2022 Games being held in her home city of Birmingham.
"I'm an ambassador for United By Birmingham 2022 which is sort of like a community legacy type project. Then I'm also on the board for the organising committee so lots of meetings, lots of work just trying to I guess make the Games happen and from my perspective make sure that they're athlete centric but then also community and legacy is really important so just trying to get everybody involved."
The Mystics, who finished third in the condensed 2020 ANZ Premiership, start this year's campaign with a home game on Monday 19 April at the Trusts Arena against the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic.