It is a return months in the making.
The Queensland Firebirds Futures vice-captain is poised to play her first official match since suffering an ACL injury during the 2025 pre-season as a Queensland Firebirds training partner - another cruel blow after all the work it had taken to get back from the first major knee setback of her career.
That this next chapter begins in her home state of Victoria, and at the same venue where she made her Suncorp Super Netball debut for the Firebirds in 2024, only adds to the emotion of the occasion.
Ridley knows just how much has happened between those two moments.
“Oh, straight away,” she said of the moment she knew the extent of the injury.
“Even I think I knew straight away with the first one, but obviously, even more so when it’s your second one.
“If you were to write kind of a year to go terribly, that probably was it from a netball sense. There was obviously lots of good stuff outside of netball, but yeah, nothing went to plan.”
The initial disappointment was real, but so too was the response. Ridley said one of the blessings of being an athlete is learning how to move quickly from setback to solution.
“The beauty of sport and the beauty of being an athlete is that the kind of mentality is you just get on with the next thing,” she said. “It’s a very structured rehab process. It’s very well documented and researched, so you kind of know what you’ve got to do. You just kind of get into it straight away.”
Having already come back from one ACL rupture, Ridley thought she knew what lay ahead of her. Instead, new challenges had to be faced.
“Initially I thought it was going to make it easier, but I quickly learned that no two injuries are the same, even if you are the same human,” she said.
“There were slightly different other injuries within both knees, and just the circumstances of my second knee was so different to my first.”
This time, life around the injury was fuller and more demanding.
Ridley had returned to full-time study, was working to support herself, and had just begun life as a Firebirds training partner. There was less flexibility, less space, and a greater need to balance everything at once.
But unlike her first ACL journey, when COVID-era restrictions left rehab feeling particularly isolating, this time she had the support of the Firebirds system around her.
Even when rehab is inherently lonely, having the Queensland Firebirds Futures Academy environment to lean on gave her both structure and connection.
“Yeah, really lucky for sure,” Ridley said. “It’s kind of lonely in a different way because you’re doing your own thing within a group that’s not doing the same thing as you.
“But yeah, always grateful and really appreciative for the support I did get.”
That support helped carry her through the darker stages of recovery, when the doubts that come with serious injury inevitably begin to creep in. Ridley admits there was a moment, literally on the floor after the injury, when she wondered whether that was the end.
“When I first did it, my initial thought was, ‘Is this the end?’” she said. “And then kind of, I was like, ‘no, it’s not’.
“I am still really young. I’m still only 24. I do have a lot of time ahead of me.”
That perspective has been shaped in part by the changing face of elite netball. Players are getting opportunities later, pathways are broader, and the game is increasingly rewarding persistence as much as precocious talent. Ridley points to recent stories inside the Firebirds program as proof that patience can still pay off.
“We saw Jesse (Laga’aia) get her (SSN) debut at 26 and that’s not uncommon these days,” she said. “There’s always kind of doubts and ups and downs, and that’s the nature of rehab. It’s the nature of sport.
“A lot of it was just noise. So yeah, I definitely still want to be here.”
And where she still wants to be, ultimately, is in Suncorp Super Netball.
“Yeah, definitely,” Ridley said. “SSN is always something I’ve been striving for since I first started playing netball, really. The dream is definitely still there.”
If rehab demanded patience, it also forced Ridley to widen her world beyond the court. She began a new degree in physiotherapy, turning an unwanted lived experience into something that could shape her future career. At the same time, she poured energy into a growing women’s health business.
That combination of study, business and rehab became more than a distraction. It became a lifeline.
“So important,” Ridley said of having pursuits beyond netball. “I think I would actually go crazy if it was my only thing.
“From a creative standpoint, I really enjoyed having that little business on the outside, and it’s been a really nice space to connect with other people that are completely removed from netball.
“It’s super nice to have a space that’s just completely different, and yeah, a little creative outlet.”
Even with that broader perspective, netball remains the priority. The business may keep building quietly in the background, and physio may shape her long-term future, but her competitive ambition has not shifted.
“Netball is still the number one goal for now,” she said.
That is part of what makes her appointment as Firebirds Futures vice-captain this season so meaningful. It is recognition not just of Ridley’s experience, but of the standards she has maintained while working her way back.
“It means so much to me,” she said. “What I pride myself on as a player and as a person is being not only a leader, but just someone who’s really upholding the values of whatever system I’m working within.
“Within the Firebirds, I think it’s such an honour to be recognised as that.”
Now, with Vixens Academy waiting at John Cain Arena, Ridley gets the chance to bring that leadership back onto the court in an environment loaded with personal significance.
She knows the league is growing. She knows the pathway is real. And after everything the past 18 months have thrown at her, she knows just how much this next step means.
“It’s awesome to see the direction it’s going,” she said of Super Netball Reserves. “I can only imagine it’s going to get better and better.”
For Ridley, though, Sunday is about something more immediate: getting back to doing what she loves, in the place where one dream began, and where it can start again.
Firebirds Futures Squad
Lily Gribble
Gemma Hutchings
Lilyanna Rennie
Sasha Flegler
Leila Simpson
Maddi Ridley
Elsa Sif Sandholt
Kirra Tappenden
Kaylin van Greunen
Jayden Molo
For Super Netball Reserves scores and results, click here. To watch matches live, visit CODE Sports (subscription required).
