QUEENSLAND Firebirds stars Donnell Wallam and Gretel Bueta have both been honoured for their 2022 achievements at the Australian Netball Awards.
Wallam’s remarkable 2022, going from uncontracted player to Australian representative in nine months, led to the 28-year-old receiving the Suncorp Super Netball Rookie of the Year prize at Thursday’s function in Brisbane.
Signed as a replacement player for the Firebirds in January after shooter Romela Aiken-George took maternity leave, Wallam scored 519 goals at an 86 per cent goal accuracy in her debut season.
That tally included 26 Suncorp Super Shots and 35 offensive rebounds, the third-highest tally in the 2022 season.
Wallam’s impact led to selection as a training partner for Australia’s netball squad for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
She then became just the third First Nations athlete to represent the Diamonds against England in Newcastle in October, coming off the bench to score a dramatic winning goal in the dying seconds of the Test.
Bueta’s achievements in the 2022 SSN campaign were also acknowledged as she was named at goal attack in the Suncorp Super Netball Team of the Year.
The sporting super-mum finished her first full campaign following the birth of son Bobby as the highest-ranked goal attack in the competition as well as the player with the most centre pass receives, in a year where Bueta also reached her 100-game milestone in the world’s best netball league.
