2022 SSN rumoured signings/speculation

Bassett has been very vocal about her issues with developments in Australian netball and she has a lot of people who strongly defend her, but I think that time after time her critics have been proven right in the last few years. Many people on this forum and on other social media platforms said that JFitz should have lost her job last year because she prioritised the moving circle. They replaced Bassett with a rookie this year and they almost won the premiership. People are now blaming imports and the two point shot for Bassett not getting a contract, when realistically no team would have recruited her even if there were limited imports. It doesn’t seem like she even got a contract in NZL, or if she did she rejected it. She says she wants chances to prove herself, but realistically she hasn’t done that and she’s not willing to step down from SSN level to do so. This is professional sport and I think she needs to take more responsibility and go looking for opportunities. Players move clubs and leagues for court time, just because she was captain of the Diamonds a few years ago doesn’t mean she’s immune from doing that as well.

As for her being good enough to make the Diamonds squad but not good enough to make an SSN squad, I think a lot of questions need to be asked about whether she actually is good enough to make the Diamonds. I’d have Dwyer over her any day of the week.

I mean this with respect – but Austin’s injury allowed for Dwyer to get court time and shine. Had she not have gotten injured, Dwyer IMO would not have seen any court time (or very little).
I don’t feel Giants would have made finals, had the shooting circle stayed Harten/Austin. Dwyer was the key for them making it. Dwyer partnered with either Harten or CBass, and they would have made finals.

I’m not trying to discredit Austin or Harten, they are both good solid players. But Julie Fitz, having to be forced to use Dwyer worked out for her. Let’s be honest, her decision making over the last few seasons have not been good. This forced decision was probably the best thing to have happened to her (both for the team and her coaching career).

I do agree that CBass has to take “more responsibility and go looking for opportunities”. She needs to get her injuries fixed, proper rehab, and then start building from there.

Bassett making the diamonds squad this year honestly baffled me, and I think has added more fuel to this fire than necessary. It seems like at a club level the organizations were willing to make the call and say no or not offer her a contract but somehow the diamonds weren’t able to do the same. It’s like when SM had her captain the first game and then gave the next three to eventual full time captain Watson under the guise of “individual game captains” for that series. Why is no one willing to be the one to cut the chord?

One of the major reasons Bassett wasn’t signed IMO is squad sizes. With teams of 10 you can’t have two specialist GSs. Bassett can’t run out at GA. The only teams where you could move the GS to GA if needed would be Lightning and Giants. Well Bassett has been there done that. The only starting GS I could make an argument that Bassett is stronger than is Potgeiter but even that would be tough. So that limits Bassett to being signed as the 3rd shooter in the ten who needs to be versatile.

Injury aside Bassett’s form has not been great in recent years. That can’t be blamed all on the feeding to her. Especially when you look at the caliber of players she had ahead of her.

I’m surprised we haven’t seen Bassett go to Super League. Will be very interesting to see what move she makes. Does she really want to be a TP? Ask any TP. It’s an extremely tough gig.

As for Dwyer being the reason Giants made finals. Huge part yes but not the only reason. Hay was superb this year. Their defence was also much improved. Dwyer is a brilliant player and I’m completely unsurprised as to what she did this year. Next year will be key. Dwyer played a lot of GS when she was younger so when you watch you can see she has a bit of work to go on the play making side (if you were to compare her to Austin say) but it’s improving each game as you’d expect. I feel it’s really what Swifts identified and exploited in the GF. Turner was huge and made Dwyer do a lot of work that she is not used to.

I thought CB had a option of a 2nd year at the Magic, but turned it down,
probs not paid enough. But Ekenasio and Mes are much better options anyway

In fairness, let’s not forget how long it took for Alexander to start Bassett. And Alexander continued to say that Cox was Captain, she should start.

Cox continued to get the start, even though we knew Bassett would come on and save the game.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by NB12.

I don’t think CBass was awful in the ANZ. Just that the Magic had WA issues, and a bunch of unfit players.
There was one game against the Tactix (Magic should have won), where Cbass was fantastic.
Cbass went to the worst team in the comp, and the wrost by a very big margin.