Tara Hinchliffe, from the Queensland Firebirds, Sunshine Coast Lightning and Melbourne Mavericks on her steady rise through the netball pathway. From her early days playing every sport she could to becoming one of the country’s most composed defenders, Tara shares candid insights into her journey, including navigating two ACL injuries and stepping into leadership roles at a young age. She offers valuable advice on building strong team culture, managing pressure, and developing meaningful relationships within a squad. This conversation highlights the thoughtful perspective and resilience at the core of Tara’s approach to the game.

Reviewing that your netball pathway, you seem to have a lot of consistent progression. How would you describe your netball pathway so far? 

In junior levels, I was really lucky that I played in an association that had some great coaches and I could make those top rep teams at that age. I think I probably fell into the pathway. I really enjoyed netball, but I wasn’t someone who was super ambitious in trying to make the next team. I was so young when I got my first opportunity and I think that was just luck and timing at where the league was at, where the Queensland Firebirds were at and where they needed some players. I grew up in North Brisbane, so I played, state teams, the school teams, under 17s and 19s for Queensland and then played in the Australian National League. So, I probably did tick off every little step along the ladder without realising it. 

Considering the impressive netball experiences you had as a junior who were the standout coaches or mentors and how do you think that they helped you along the way?

I played at Brisbane Netball Association (BNA) growing up and I was so lucky to have a lot of amazing coaches at that first level. I feel like that’s when you can make or break some people’s love of the game, but I had some great coaches first up. I think anyone I had at BNA was a great mentor. BNA is a great association and I feel like they made netball fun. We didn’t win a lot of the time, especially in my first couple of state age competitions when I was 12 and 13, but those coaches really fostered a love of the game.

Then moving through the North Brisbane Pathway, I played for the Cougars in the state league, and I had Liz White and Amanda Vanderwall and they were unreal coaches, probably some of the best coaches I’ve had to date.

They showed me what it means to be in high-performing team as a high-performing athlete. 

You’ve been really drawn to leadership from an early stage. For young netballers that you work with, what are your tips for being leaders on and off the court and bringing the right culture to a team? 

Liz White and Amanda Vandewall in my first U17 team gave me the opportunity to be captain of that team. I had no idea what that meant, or what it looked like. But coming up through the pathway, I had some amazing leaders, especially at Queensland Firebirds, Gabby Simpson played a huge role in my career and she’s someone I’ve based a lot of my leadership style from. Friendships are really important to me, and I think no matter what level of netball you’re playing, everyone’s trying to win, and you always want to play your best, but having those relationships on and off the court makes a huge difference to the team.

We’re all athletes for that 60 minutes we might be playing a game, but we have a whole week and a whole life outside of that court. And for me, I know it’s so important for me to be happy and feeling great off court and it changes how I play on the court. 

Netball is the ultimate team sport, it forces you to be friends with everyone on your team because you need every single player to get the ball from one end to the other. 

On your relationship with your sister Maddie obviously being twins you’re really close and you both grew up playing netball together. What has it meant to you both personally and professionally to share the netball journey together? 

Both of us have had similar and also very different careers at the same time. I feel so lucky that we’ve been able to play for so many years together, especially in that junior pathway. We’ve learned a lot more as adults, when Maddie branched out and moved down to Melbourne for a bit, we were at separate teams, and now we’ve come back together. That experience has just made us so grateful to share the highs and the lows. Being a twin, sister or sibling in the same team, it can be the best of the best. And then it can be hard when you feel like you might be so stoked but they’re struggling. But when you’re both struggling, you’re both in it together. And when one’s up and one’s down, you really have that awareness for each other and have to make sure that you bring each other up. 

When you think of all the playing experiences you’ve had so far, what do you think has been your highlight?

I’ve had some great experiences like the World Youth Cup when we played in Botswana. I think at the time I was probably so in shock that I was there and didn’t really understand what was going on but that’s an experience I’ll never get again, to play netball in Africa and experience that highly professional environment. Off the court seeing the world in a whole new light really was exciting and it was special to be part of that. Also winning the Fast Five title with Australia a couple of years ago for the first time in a few years was really exciting because Australia’s been so dominant on the world stage for so long, but we hadn’t had that Fast Five title. To be able to lead the girls to that win was really exciting and it was a really good highlight coming off the back of my knee injury.

You made your Diamonds debut in 2023. What was that experience like?

I got the call, last minute-ish to be ready for camp. The girls were super welcoming and there’s nothing like being in a diamonds camp. It’s the best of the best in the world playing netball against each other. Then getting the last-minute call up to say, that I was travelling away with them was so exciting. It was also nice to have Cara and Steph from Lightning there they made it feel like home for me and took me under their wing a little bit to make sure I felt comfortable over there. Being back in Africa was also great and the coaching staff were so good at bringing me into that. When I got on court, it was great. I had no preparation; it was during a quarter, and I pretty much rolled on.

After making your Australian Diamonds debut, you suffered your second ACL injury. What did you learn from experiencing those two major injuries and those rehab experiences?

They were both very different experiences. My first one was at the end of 2021, so towards the end of our season when I was with the Firebirds. As a netballer you know you’re signing up to do an ankle or a knee at some point in your career. I had such a quick progression into SSN so I hadn’t had time to just sit and reflect that I was playing for the Firebirds which was my childhood dream. My first injury I really reflected and focused on the basic skills like learning to run again, throw and catch and how to make my movements more effective on court. That first time I didn’t know anything different. I didn’t look at other people’s journeys because I didn’t want to compare mine, which I think was a blessing and a curse towards the end of it. But I actually enjoyed that first experience. 

Then obviously when you do your ACL a second time, there’s more understanding of what you’re in for. I was so lucky to be contracted with Lightning, so I knew that there was still something to work towards. I also wanted to make sure I could contribute to the team because I thought I couldn’t be the person sitting on the side of the court upset and miserable because that’s definitely an easy option when you’re injured. Also, credit to the Lightning Girls, I enjoyed that second ACL because they really got around me and made sure I felt part of the group too.

Despite your injury, you were heavily involved in the 2023 season throughout your role as vice captain. What did leading from off the court teach you?

I’ve probably been someone who gravitates towards the off-court part of leadership more than then on court. I’ve been lucky I’ve been in teams where I’ve had superstars all around me. So, on court, I left leadership to those girls, but off court those relationships are so important to me. I’m grateful to the leadership team that they had me going away on all the away trips so I still felt like part of the team, they valued what I didn’t see in myself. Off court you also learn so much about analysis, strategies, and tactics during a game and how to review and change play in the moment which is something you don’t have access to as a player you just review the statistics after the game.

After four years at the Firebirds, you decided to move to Sunshine Coast Lightning. You’ve said before that you’re not a huge risk taker, so can you tell me a little bit about your decision-making process behind this move?

I was reflecting on a lot of different things and the journey I’d had so far because it was just after I’d injured my knee. I had so much love for the Firebirds, they had given me my opportunity and I had made so many close friends playing there. In the end my choice was probably a little bit biased; I was lucky that my family, (my grandparents) had a unit up the coast and the opportunity came up while I was up there to meet with them (Sunshine Coast Lightning). At first, I thought I needed to be loyal as I had played for BNA my whole life and in North Brisbane, you have to play for the Firebirds but my sister had been up at Lightning the year before. It was a scary decision and I felt like I might be letting some people down. But part of me thought, if I don’t take a risk, I’ll never know and I’m grateful that I took that jump.

Has there been a mentor or role model that helped you through the challenges and the big transitions that you faced, like changing clubs at an SSN level or even your injury experiences?

I’ve been lucky to have a very supportive family. My parents, brother and my sisters have always given me that love and freedom to make my own decisions. So for anything in life I’ve always leant on them, and they’ve been such a great sounding board. Player wise, Mahalia Cassidy was someone who I was close with at Firebirds, and she’d injured both ACLs as well. So, when I did my ACL, she was someone I leant on. She was also playing at Sunshine Coast and I feel like our values really aligned.

What are the top tips you share with defenders?

My number one tip is to be a pest. As a defender, we can be really nice people off court, but our job on the court is to win the ball and to annoy our attackers. So, if in doubt, just think, how can I be more annoying? Pretend you’re playing your brother or sister; you would want to annoy them. So do that to the opposition or to your teammates at training too. 

Footwork is also important, it’s a skill for any position, but as a defender, if you don’t have good footwork, it’s really hard to win the ball. So, keeping those active feet and thinking about the positions and angles so making sure we’ve got good body positioning to be able to see the ball and see the player. If you can do those three things, 100% you’ll win the ball for your team.

Preparing for rep trials, it’s always a big stage for junior netball players. What are your three top tips for preparing for selection?

My number one is go in with a smile and say hello to everyone. It makes you feel better, and it makes everyone else feel better as well. Remembering that trials, at the end of the day, is just another game of netball and if you’re going to trials you’ve played for a couple of years. 

You’re studying psychological science, something that you decided on quite early. Why did you choose that course and how has it helped you in your elite sporting journey so far?

I’ve finished four years of it, so I’ve still got my master’s to go at some point when I finish playing. I’ve always been interested in how relationships work between different people. I think mindset can change so much of how you approach life and the way you interpret things. I’ve had so many teachers at school who talked about positive self-talk and how you can think, interact, and how you behave and act towards other people. It was something that really interested me and I wanted to be able to share that and help people. I love helping people. I also think for sport, it’s so relevant. I don’t want to be a sport psychologist necessarily, but it has taught me so much about perspective, positive psychology, and self-talk. 

Chatting with Kiera Austin she spoke about the power of positive self-talk, does your study give you more tools to help with mindset and perspective when you’re going through a challenging moment or a tough game? 

In undergrad you just touch on little bits and pieces like the different perspectives that you can have. There are some subjects that I thought were really great, and positive psychology was one of them with self-talk being a huge part of that. Even simple things like mindfulness and breathing and being able to reset and regulate yourself can have a huge impact. Like Kiera said, especially as a shooter, I’m imagining that positive self-talk would play a huge role, because it would be easy to get in your head. Whereas as a defender, you can’t really win or lose the game for your team. You can do your best, but the shooters are meant to get the ball in. So if you win a ball, that’s great, go celebrate that. Taking that pressure off is something I’ve also learned from the psychology world, working out what your priorities are and what you want to get out of whatever you’re doing.

What do you think are the best things that your parents did on the sidelines to help you in junior sport or it might even things that they did or said before or after the game. So you engage with a lot of players, of parents coaching young athletes, so what are your tips also for supporting players based on your experiences?

I had very supportive parents. There was no pressure on me to win or lose. After games, we’d get in the car, and they’d read me to see if I wanted to talk about the game. Sometimes you want to talk about it – you might want to vent or debrief things but other times it’s better to say nothing. Growing up Mum and Dad would say “play hard, have fun, I love you” and I felt that was all I needed to hear before a game.

After a game they’d say, “great job, you worked so hard, I love you.” And that made me be feel that they didn’t care if I won or lost or how much I played. They just wanted to support me and make sure they didn’t put extra pressure on me, which I’m grateful for.

It’s a similar message to parents now, sport can be so important, especially for girls in netball, to build confidence and leadership in so many skills. I want girls to be able to play for as long as they want to play. I hope they want to play, and parents do whatever their child needs to make sure that they’re excited to go to training and they’re excited to go to a game. 

Book your very own coaching session with Tara Hinchliffe here, or train with Maddie Hinchliffe

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