by Brittany Carter
The Panthers have had an extra set of hands in the coaching department this season, from the one and only NSW Swifts captain Paige Hadley.
The 59 capped Diamond and Penrith junior has a strong connection to the Premier League franchise, as her mother Sandra has been a manager for Panthers for many years.
Hadley popped up at different points in both the Opens and U23s set ups to dip her toes in the water and get a bit of a feel for the coaching world.
It’s also a pretty big deal for the players, who look up to the Super Netball midcourter.
“It’s given Paige some real hands-on experience,” high performance manager Lisa Beehag said.
“It was funny at her first game, she was so animated it was like she was part of playing group and we had to tell her ‘Paige, if you keep coaching like this, you'll be dead in a couple of weeks’.
“Her passion is amazing and I think that really came through to the players, because they enjoyed her training sessions and the midcourt have picked up so much.
“Even just little things where she's probably saying the exact same thing as their regular coaches, but because the delivery is coming from Paige Hadley it makes a difference.
“She’s also done some work with our junior state titles and metro league teams, so we’re hoping whenever the day comes that she decides to hang up the dress we can keep her in the system.”
Not only do Panthers have that link to Hadley as Diamond #161, but Beehag herself is also Diamond #99.
Representing Australia 25 times, Beehag was among the team that finished equal second at the 1987 World Cup. She also went on to work as a Diamonds assistant coach from 1998-2003.
Her experience was sought overseas in coaching roles for Canada and Singapore, before Beehag took control of the NSW Swifts for the 2012 and 2013 seasons of the ANZ Premiership.
She has since been with the Panthers since the inaugural season of Premier League in 2016 and has played various roles throughout that time.
Currently Beehag works as their high performance manager but is often being roped into various other roles to plug a hole whenever they get stuck.
“I originally came in to be the head coach of the Opens team and I didn't really want to coach for too long,” she said.
“I'd always said I'd come in for just a couple of seasons and the idea was then that the person looking after our U23s would move up and that progression would begin.
“But that changed a little bit when our first U23s coach decided to go overseas. It threw a spanner in the works about our ideas around that evolution.
“We got really lucky scoring Moira Gaha as our Opens coach and Nerida Stewart coming over.
“Nerida has gone on to coach in Super Netball and the Australian Kelpies, so that's been good.
“By then we had coaches underneath ready to come through, such as Jenny Barsby who is now at the helm of our U23s.
“It’s great because Jenny is a product of our area and that’s been an important goal.
“We don’t just want to focus on bringing players through from our area, we also want to bring coaches and managers through too.
“This season I thought I was just doing high performance and mentoring, but we ended up putting my name down as U23s assistant as well, so I just let Jenny do what she wants.”
An exciting addition this season has been the introduction of the Mayor’s Cup.
The trophy is set to symbolise the Battle of the West rivalry between the Panthers from Penrith and GWS Fury from Blacktown.
It was first seen in action in round 16 where the Panthers came away as inaugural victors.
The Mayor’s Cup takes into account the results of both the U23s and Opens teams on the night.
Panthers won both divisions this year, but there are contingencies in place in case each franchise was to win a match – such as goal difference.
The concept initially came about when Panthers hosted a game against the Fury in their local area. From now on it will be played in their second meeting of every Premier League season.
“The mayor at the time, councillor Tricia Hitchen came along to the match and loved the idea of commemorating the Battle of the West in a more official capacity,” Beehag said.
“She suggested it would be a great way to involve the councils in the conversation too and although she moved on, the new mayor Todd Carney was all for it.
“He also happened to know GWS U23s coach Nadia Trevor already as they went to the same school … Apparently, she was the girls sports champion and he was the boys sports champion then … So he was keen to build that rivalry and push it along.
“This was our way of trying to do something a bit different in Premier League and find another way of promoting the sport to generate interest in our local communities.
“We’re one of the first franchises to do this and the crowd we got at the game was really promising, so lots of people heard about it.
“We've decided to just do it for the second round of games, and it'll always be on Show Court.”
The Panthers U23s only just missed finals this season, finishing in fifth place.
Meanwhile, the Opens team finished eighth after the regular rounds. One place higher than last season with an extra win to their name.
