By Linda Pearce
AT THE 2007 world championships in Auckland, debutante Natalie Medhurst was stunned to be called from the bench for the last seven minutes of a nail-shredding grand final win against New Zealand. Four years on, Medhurst is one of Australia's most important players; not because she is the best in the team, necessarily, but for her vital, elevated role within it.
The story has its genesis back in 1999, when Medhurst was a junior netballer from country South Australia inspired by the performance of a young Sharelle McMahon in the final of the Christchurch world titles. When the pair finally met several years later McMahon recalls being surprised and amused by how openly excited Medhurst was to meet one of her heroes at last.
Going for goal: Natalie Medhurst is critical to Australia's world championship hopes.Credit: Getty Images
By 2007, they were teammates in the national squad, playing the same position and sharing a speedy, dynamic style. They were partners on court, too, at times - McMahon zipping around at goal shooter and Medhurst roaming out the front at goal attack when coach Norma Plummer preferred a super-mobile scoring circle, as she did for much of last year.
''There's definitely some similarities,'' McMahon told The Saturday Age. ''We're the same height, basically, and Nat has got really beautiful timing on her leads so we certainly have some differences in the way that we play. But she has developed and grown really strongly over the last few years.''
So to round eight of the ANZ Championship, this year. McMahon's Melbourne Vixens hosting Medhurst's unbeaten Queensland Firebirds. Late in the second quarter, McMahon clutched her left Achilles, wondering who had kicked her in the leg - but, ominously, seeing no one. Knowing.
Medhurst at the opposite tranverse line. Fearing, too. Visiting the locker room later, receiving the likely prognosis. And in that awful instant, becoming Australia's first-choice goal attack, by some margin, in a world championship year.
''Obviously it's not the way anyone would want it to happen, and what happened to Sharelle was absolutely devastating - it was horrible to be there, and just for it to happen,'' Medhurst said before departing with the Australian team for Singapore, where the 2011 titles open tomorrow.
''But I know I'm nowhere near as talented and as skilful as what she is, so I'm not going to try and go out there and play like her because it will probably end in absolute disaster. What I need to do is make sure I step up; she's such a fierce competitor, and I need to certainly put a bit more of that - what she has - into my game, and I guess really take a bit more leadership and control out there on court. Really put my hand up and be accountable.''
It was all so different back in 2007, when Medhurst was in the position that the likes of back-up shooters Erin Bell and Chelsea Pitman and Cath Cox's gangly understudy Caitlin Bassett are in now. McMahon and Cox were the starting pair, and Medhurst got her opportunities, but only occasionally in the front line - until that classic final, yet another one, when frantic interchange activity reigned towards its chaotic end.
''It was all happening - Norma was playing musical bibs in the attack line,'' Medhurst laughs. ''She was just swapping and changing, so when she called me to go on I was thinking 'she actually has lost the plot,' so I couldn't believe it.
''To be out there representing your country at your first world championships, playing New Zealand in New Zealand, and obviously to beat them was probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and certainly something that I'll never forget.''
This is a far different one, with just four other survivors - Nat von Bertouch, Mo'onia Gerrard, Julie Corletto and Cox - from the successful class of 2007. Yet Medhurst believes it compares well for versatility and, with an average of almost 26 years and 27 Test caps, nor is it as young or as inexperienced as on paper it may seem.
Plummer admits Medhurst is now the standout goal attack, but has stressed the need for McMahon's successor to ''stay in the game for four quarters'', having questioned how long it took the 27-year-old to make an impact when summoned for the second half of the most recent Test against New Zealand.
''She came on, shot one out of four in the third quarter and then finally got into the game,'' said Plummer. ''We can't afford that, she's got to be in there quicker, so we're expecting a much more dynamic performance coming from her straight away. She did a fantastic job in opening up the circle for us, but there's some areas of her game she's still got to work very hard on.''
Yet shooting is not one of them, and Medhurst's accuracy rate of 83.7 per cent was the best of any frontline goal attack in the trans-Tasman league this season. She was also in the top 10 for aggregate, as part of an unstoppable partnership with Jamaican Romelda Aiken in Queensland's premiership team.
Which was also confirmation, if any was needed, that Medhurst is not just a feeder, but also a willing scorer in the style of, well, McMahon.
''I've always been taught, and Joyce Brown certainly reaffirms that any time she gets a chance, that if you put your hand up to be either a goal shooter or a goal attack, your role is to shoot the ball if you get the opportunity, and Nat absolutely does that with confidence,'' said the former captain, who will be a spectator and commentator in Singapore.
So the goal attack bib is in good hands? ''Yep,'' smiles McMahon. ''Absolutely.''