Southern Steel defender Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit admits thoughts of retirement scare her as she approaches her sixteenth year of elite netball.
Steel's Te Huinga Selby-Rickit during the 2020 ANZ Premiership Netball. Photo: Photosport
The former Silver Ferns defender started out at the Southern Sting in 2006, which preceded the Steel, when she was just 16 year's old.
With the increased demands on players, she's not sure that would be possible today.
"I used to go to school, I can't imagine being at school and trying to do or work or anything and do this kind of training because we do two to three trainings a day and it's so taxing on your body and that leads to your mind being tired and all of that," Selby-Rickit said.
The Steel started pre-season training last week and it was typically brutal.
"It's always rough but our trainer ...he always changes it up every year so you come in dreading something and then he throws something else that's dreadful at you. But it's been good we have a few new girls down here so just trying to get a feel for each other I guess but yeah the training has been really hard."
The 31-year-old said there was no comparison to when she first started.
"I think back in the day we used to do team trainings Tuesday and Thursday nights and then they'd throw in a weights maybe and a running session but now it's weights almost every day, running definitely every day. There's swimming, there's all sorts of stuff, so there's way more to do now."
She's not sure if her body would have lasted this long if the training regime had been that intense from the start of her career.
But Selby-Rickit is a player who feeds off team camaraderie and believes the desire would still be there.
"Even in these sessions that are so hard, everyone's there kind of dying together and that's the best part of it. All your mates are right next to you doing it and I don't know what other job you can do that in. So yeah I think I would be [still playing] just because I just love being around a team and training with my team-mates and all that kind of thing."
Te Huinga Selby-Rickit, Katrina Grant and Daneka Wipiiti during the 2008 ANZ Netball Championship. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Selby-Rickit has managed to come through her career so far with no major injury. Remarkably she can't remember missing a game due to injury.
"I have no idea why because my bio mechanics aren't the best I think. I've done my ankles heaps but I've never actually been put out for an injury for longer than a week. So I have been very lucky ...I've seen some of the girls recover from some terrible injuries and it's really really tough mentally as well so hopefully that continues."
Grace Kara and Anna Harrison will be the only other players in this year's ANZ Premiership who played in the old National Bank Cup before the ANZ Championship began in 2008.
In her first two year's with the Sting, Selby-Rickit got to play alongside stalwarts of the game like Donna Wilkins and Adine Wilson.
She said it was a great time to start her career.
"There were some amazing players at their prime in that competition and we got to learn from them and be coached by some really great coaches so it was an honour and a privilege to have played in that competition."
Her talent was spotted early on. A year after making the NZU21 squad as a 15-year-old in 2004, Selby-Rickit was a member of their victorious World Youth Cup campaign in 2005.
A part of the very first Steel side in 2008, Selby-Rickit followed renowned coach Robyn Broughton to the Central Pulse in 2012 where she played four seasons, before returning to the Steel.
Sport runs in the family, her father Hud Rickit is a former All Black, and sister Te Paea Selby-Rickit is a Silver Fern.
Having never had a 'normal' job, thoughts of retirement do scare her.
"I'm so used to the netball schedule, you know getting up reasonably early for training and then kind of having an afternoon off and then training at night again. I can't imagine working a nine to five job, yeah that part scares me.
"I'm sure I would get used to it eventually I hope but I'm just so used to netball and I'm used to being around generally my friends all day every day so yeah it would be tough."
At this stage she's taking it one season at a time.
"Every year I'm like 'no this is definitely my last' and then I forget about how bad pre-season was and then I sign up again."
When she does retire she won't be shouting it from the rooftops.
"I'm not the type of person who would say 'I'm retiring this year' and finish off because I hate all the other stuff that comes with it, the farewell kind of things. If and when I retire I'm just going to go out very quietly and probably unexpectedly and just let it go because I don't like the farewell tour kind of thing."
Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit and Casey Kopua. Silver Ferns v Malawi, 2013. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
In 2013 Selby-Rickit picked up two Test caps after forcing her way into the Silver Ferns.
The next year she made herself unavailable. It's a decision she's never regretted.
"The Silver Ferns' programme is very very tough. It takes up your whole year if you're doing both and then also some of those girls are trying to get their degrees and that. It's so tiring on your body and your mind to be focussed that much the whole year around and I did find that really tough.
"I kind of found after the Silver Ferns' season would finish and you would go back to your ANZ team you were just tired. I was just personally worn out and I didn't look forward to the ANZ season but after I stopped the Silver Ferns thing I found that I loved coming back at the start of the season and really enjoyed it.
"That's just me, those other girls are amazing that keep to that programme and have been doing it for years. I honestly don't know how they do it."
The Steel celebrating their 2018 ANZ Premiership win. Photo: © www.Photosport.nz 2018
Netball trips gave her a taste of travel so over the years Selby-Rickit has used the ANZ off season to either work on completing her teaching degree or go travelling.
The Steel, who finished fifth last year, are getting used to life without Gina Crampton, with the Silver Ferns' midcourter signed with the Northern Stars.
New signings Ali Wilshier and Sarahpheinna Woulf, who played together in Australian State team the USC Thunder on the Sunshine Coast, have moved south.
If anyone knows what it's like to be an outsider coming in, it's Selby-Rickit, who moved down to Invercargill as a 16-year-old, to play under Broughton.
"They've been really good, they are living here in Invercargill and it must be really different and tough for them being away from their families and coming to Invercargill but they've been really good, just still finding their feet but I'm sure they'll be fine in no time."