A HORSE from Stradbroke Island came close to preventing Vicki Wilson OAM from fulfilling her potential as the world’s greatest goal shooter of her competitive era.
A young Wilson, raised running around on paddocks not far from what will soon be the Brisbane International Cycle Park at Murarrie, would have rather stayed home with Banner than accept a netball scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).
“My grandfather brought him back on the barge,” Wilson said.
“I didn't accept the scholarship because I just didn't want to go. I didn't see the point of leaving home to go and live in a place where I couldn't take my horse.”
Launching her sporting career as a defender, Wilson’s early ambitions extended not far beyond the boundary of her backyard.
“I just wanted to play A-Grade for Cannon Hill, and then I made the underage Queensland teams,” she said.
“I had two years in that schoolgirls side and we got whopped. I became more determined to be a goaler because we weren't scoring goals and I just knew how important it was when you got the ball that you had to score.”
Wilson honed her accuracy to the goal post, recruiting even the most unwilling of family contacts as unofficial teammates.
“My brothers’ friends, they always laugh now because I wouldn't let them in the house unless they either fetched or passed the ball for me,” she said.
“Fat Freddy used to say, ‘Mr Wilson, Mr Wilson, my arms are dropping off, can you please let me come in the house?’.”
One’s misfortune is often another’s opportunity, as it was in 1983 when goal shooter Denise Sawtell broke her arm, elevating Wilson from the Queensland Under-21s to Queensland Opens two weeks out from the national championships at Downey Park.
“That first national championships in Brisbane was really funny because I didn't really expect to play very many games,” she said.
“Then they told me I was playing against Victoria. I remember ringing dad who ended up taking a day off work to come out. His boss must have loved sport because the next thing you know, dad was rocking in for games, going home and rocking on in again.”
Wilson’s efforts were enough to catch the eye of selectors, who named her in the Australian Under-21 team and subsequently offered that AIS scholarship she so quickly dismissed.
Embarking upon a university degree to become a physical education teacher, Wilson was simultaneously drip fed experiences of a netballer’s life in Canberra by then-AIS coach Wilma Shakespear.
“Wilma used to take me in for a weekend or on the holidays, she then took me overseas on a tour at the end of the year to the Caribbean,” Wilson said.
“That's what made me go, ‘oh yeah, this can't be that bad’. It wasn't until I went to the institute that I started to realise I'm not so bad at this game. I looked around and there weren't that many people at my level. It became about perfecting the art, and that's when I started to have aspirations.”
That same year, in 1985, Wilson debuted for Australia and so began a 15-year love affair with wearing the national dress, which perhaps wouldn’t have been so impressive had it not been for rookie complacency.
“We went on a tour to Wales and I didn’t play very much but porked up a treat, staying on in Paris where I discovered pastries,” Wilson said.
“In 1986, I also discovered alcohol. I played in the tri-series but at the end of nationals I didn’t even make the Australian squad, so I went from top 10 to not even being in the top 20. I thought I’d make reserves, and then didn’t even make the Australian 21s. I think I cried all the way from Darwin to Brisbane, and didn’t want to go back to Canberra.”
Keith ‘Beefy’ Wilson left his daughter no other option though.
“I was at Brisbane Airport and rang dad, asking him to come pick me up,” Wilson said.
“I said, ‘I'm not going back to Canberra, I’m quitting’ and he goes, ‘well, you're gonna have to because I'm not picking you up so just sort it out’. I cried all the way back to Canberra.”
Three weeks later, Wilson informed Shakespear of her intentions to return to the Australian team, albeit while basing herself in Brisbane.
“I bought a push bike and got back in shape,” Wilson said.
“From then on, I really didn't take it for granted. I knuckled down, pulled myself out of it and I turned it around and it was a really good life lesson in presenting yourself in the best way you possibly can. If they don't pick you and you know you've done your best, fair enough, you can live with that. But if you go in underprepared, well then, these are the consequences and you've got to expect it.”
Wilson went on to captain Australia for four of those 15 years, while dominating at home to amass 158 games in Queensland colours.
As the inaugural Queensland Firebirds captain in 1997, Wilson was tough but fair according to teammate Belinda Stickney, nee Dever.
“I went out on court to be a good partner in the goal circle for her,” Stickney said.
“I didn’t want to let her down. I was a 19-year-old and there I was playing with the Australian captain so I was absolutely nervous but I was so lucky to be out there learning from the best.”
Stickney, one of the Firebirds’ great goal attacks, reflected on Wilson’s exacting standards which pushed them all to be better.
“She constantly reinforced the importance of doing all the little things right, being on time, wearing the correct uniform, saying hello to everyone and not cutting corners, as it all adds up,” she said.
“She made us understand the value in going the extra mile.”
Investing in people, building them up to be better, is an ongoing motivation behind Wilson’s current international commitments across both sport and corporate platforms.
“I was a great student of the game, and now I look back I can share that knowledge,” she said.
“The longevity I’m also most certainly proud of, and the way I played. I never gave up.”
Netball Queensland (NQ) is formalising its connections with former Firebirds through the establishment of the Former Firebirds Nest.
This initiative aims to connect NQ with former players, to continue to cultivate a sense of belonging and provide opportunities for all former Firebirds to strengthen a network with each other and the current Firebirds playing group.
On Friday, 3 November, NQ will hold the inaugural Fifth Quarter event to celebrate our legends of the game including a panel featuring Wilson, former Firebird Karen Clarke and Queensland and Australia representative Liz White.
For more information about the Fifth Quarter event or to buy tickets, click here.
