The NSW Swifts tried to convert her into a netballer. The Queensland Firebirds turned her into a champion.
Gretel Bueta’s path to stardom was never linear and the next step in her journey could propel her Queensland Firebirds to the Suncorp Super Netball finals and simultaneously crush the dreams of the club where it all started.
Steven Spielberg could not have scripted a more dramatic finish to the 2022 season, with seven teams still in the premiership race and old rivals the Firebirds and Swifts drawn to face each other in the home and away climax at Ken Rosewall Arena.
For Bueta, it is a meeting of the club that gave her a first contract and the outfit where she featured in back-to-back titles in 2015-16.
Kim Green was Bueta’s captain at the Swifts in 2014 and she now marvels at the goal attack’s party tricks.
“I just can't believe how dominant she is now, coming from where she started,” Fox Netball commentator Green said. “She's that good.
“She demands the ball and has that x-factor.
“There's not that many teams that I love to sit down and watch but the Firebirds are one of them. I can't wait to see the ball in her hands.”
Humble beginnings
Bueta’s value in netball was not always apparent.
She was a latecomer to netball after rising through basketball’s pathway to the under-19 Australian Gems.
The Firebirds introduced her as a training partner before then-Swifts coach Rob Wright took a punt on the raw youngster who at that stage was also being considered as a wing attack.
“I remember Rob saying we've got this basketballer, hardly played any netball, but she's so strong. Rob was pretty quirky but he knows talent,” Green said.
“Back in those days she was an incredible athlete, like she is now, but she couldn't hit the side of a shed.
“The plan was to upskill her. I just thought, the poor kid, of all the positions, goal attack’s the last one you want to throw her into. It's such a pressure position.”
Coming from a different background worked in Bueta’s favour.
She had no pre-conceived ideas of how goal attack should be played, the lines she should run or the shots she should or shouldn’t take.
If Bueta felt like leaping 50cm off the floor to create a cleaner angle to throw a one-handed feed around an opponent’s shoulder, well, she would.
“She was unorthodox but she just kept chipping away,” Green said.
“It was disappointing to lose her at the end of that season but we knew it was the right decision for her.
“We tried to make her into a netballer. It wasn't til she got to the Firebirds that we started seeing the lay-ups.”
Finished product
Win, lose or draw on Sunday at Ken Rosewall Arena, Bueta will be at the heart of it, flashing that sparkling smile.
Netball purists still do not always appreciate her unpredictability but there is little doubt her point of difference compels them to watch.
“She's one of a kind and revolutionised the position,” Green said.
“If you could bottle what's going through her mind you would because that's the good stuff.
“She's a champion and she'll dominate the Commonwealth Games as well.
“If they kept her at wing attack she'd have nailed that too.”
