It was a leap of faith - the kind young athletes make when the pull of opportunity outweighs the comfort of home.
A handful of months on, that decision is starting to look like a very smart one.
The talented midcourter relocated north at the end of last year, taking up tertiary studies at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) and immersing herself in the Queensland netball environment.
Suncorp Super Netball ambitions, climate, lifestyle and a sense that something was waiting for her all played into the call.
“To start it was uni,” Simpson said.
“I applied to uni up here at ACU. But I think also just Firebirds sounds like a great environment and I got the opportunity to come and trial up here for the Queensland State Team.
The move has accelerated her career at a pace few new arrivals could expect.
After settling in through the early part of the year, Simpson has steadily worked her way into the heart of Queensland’s netball pathway.
She earned selection in the Queensland 19 and Under State Team for this year’s National Netball Championships and, in a quirk, did so in her old home state of Victoria.
It was a surreal feeling for someone who had grown up with Melbourne as her home environment.
“Oh, it was - it feels like my home,” Simpson said of returning to Victoria in Queensland colours.
That experience marked a key step in proving the move was working.
So too has the way Simpson has handled the inevitable adjustment that comes with starting fresh.
Relocating to a new state, beginning university, integrating into elite training groups and learning the demands of a new environment is no small load.
It meant a tough decision to defer her university studies for the immediate future as she finds her feet in her new surroundings, but the decision is proving the right one as she keeps ticking off achievement after achievement.
Already named in the Firebirds Futures squad for this year’s Super Netball Reserves season, Simpson took another major step last weekend when she made her Reserves debut against Vixens Academy at John Cain Arena - once again playing on familiar turf, but in new colours.
The progression from new arrival to Futures debutant has come quickly, and Simpson is determined not to waste a moment of it.
She speaks openly about her belief in the Firebirds environment, and the value of being inside a system that gives emerging athletes a clear roadmap to the next level.
She has also been watching closely.
The blueprint of Victorian-raised players making it big with the Firebirds is one Simpson is well aware of, with Lara Dunkley and Maddi Ridley among those who have made the same kind of leap and earned their place in a Firebirds dress.
Futures vice-captain Ridley, in particular, embodies the type of pathway Simpson is excited about - a midcourter who relocated, fought through setbacks, and is now back in the Firebirds Futures leadership group with her sights still firmly set on SSN.
For Simpson, those journeys provide both reassurance and inspiration. They show that this exact move can lead exactly where she wants to go.
That ultimate destination remains clear.
Wearing the Firebirds’ purple dress in Suncorp Super Netball sits at the top of her short-to-mid-term ambitions, and the way she has approached her first months in Queensland suggests she is willing to do the work required to chase it.
Beyond that, the dream stretches further still.
Simpson holds the same ambition shared by Australia’s very best - to one day pull on the gold dress and represent the Australian Diamonds.
It is the type of goal that can sound enormous on paper for a player only at the beginning of her senior journey, but Simpson’s willingness to leave home, embrace the unknown and back herself in a new system says plenty about her appetite to keep climbing.
She is realistic about how those steps usually look. Progress in elite netball is rarely linear. There are setbacks, learning periods, and patient stretches where the work matters more than the headlines.
After last week’s Melbourne homecoming for her debut, Simpson is now looking at what comes next - in the colours she has chosen, inside the program she relocated to be part of.
It is a long way from the Victorian junior pathways she grew up in. It is also exactly where she planned to be.
FIREBIRDS FUTURES SQUAD - Round 4, vs GIANTS Netball Reserves (Sunday, 12pm @ Nissan Arena)
Kirra Tappenden
Kaylin van Greunen
Jayden Molo
Jessie Laga'aia
Maddison Ridley
Sasha Flegler
Gemma Hutchings
Lillyana Rennie
Charlotte Jonsen
Lily Gribble
For Super Netball Reserves scores and results, click here. To watch matches live, visit CODE Sports (subscription required).
