• Miss 8.6, recent winner of the Year 4 freestyle relay area champs title and effortless swimmer of the 50 metre pool at the local aquatic centre keeps asking if she can play netball instead of going swimming on Saturday mornings.
  • This, despite the glory of gold-coloured certificates, lashings of encouragement and praise and offers of tempting carrots such as joining that really cool swim-club with the fancy-schmancy tracksuits and styly kitbags that sometimes train after her lessons.
  • Yes, there go my daydreams of cheering her on poolside at the 2016 Olympics. There they go, wafting right out the window….
  • But, there is the possibility of her becoming the next Irene van Dyk, or Casey Williams.
  • She could run out onto the court in the silver and black and sing the National Anthem in front of a packed stadium.
  • She might then be a pivotal player in the Silver Ferns winning the World Champs and kicking Australia’s butt ten times in a row, well and truly rubbing captain (and stroppy little mare) Sharelle McMahon’s nose in it, if she’s still around.
  • Invites to appear on shows like A Game of Two Halves/Celebrity Treasure Island/Sale of the Century will flood in, and she’ll end up dating a really gorgeous, incredibly talented All-Black (probably the captain) who’ll be a dead ringer for Richie McCaw.
  • They will get engaged, then married, and the wedding photos will appear in New Zealand’s top selling women’s weekly magazine, pushing the sales figures up to their best ever.
  • She’ll have two gorgeous kids and go on to be the coach of the Silver Ferns, carrying their unbeaten record on for the next two decades.
  • Or, she could just be a little girl who loves netball for the hell of it, just because her Mum and Dad let her play it on Saturday mornings like she wanted to.