N.Z. selection completes Heffernan’s comeback

Press, 20 May 1987, Page 44

N.Z. selection completes Heffernan’s comeback

A ruptured anterior cruciate ligament at the 1985 world championships in London almost spelt the end of Annette Heffernan’s promising netball career.

Heffernan was forced to withdraw from the New Zealand team at that stage, but she was not finished with netbalL She returned to club play in 1986, sporting a heavily-taped right leg, covered by a supportive stocking, from her midthigh to below her knee. She enjoyed a steady season for St Nicholas at both club level and in the Swiss Maid league and she was also selected for the South Island team. This season Heffernan has been back to her best form and won selection in the New Zealand team for the world championships in Glasgow in August “It took a while to get my confidence back, and I favoured my other leg for landings “There is an operation possible which has a 50 per cent chance of full recovery,” she said. Heffernan, who is aged 24, was pleased and relieved to make the New Zealand team, and had a positive attitude towards the trials. “I looked forward to them and tuned myself to play as well as I could.” Her ambition this seaon is to play in the New

By

DIANNA LESLIE

Zealand team in Glasgow. “I'm really driving for the top seven,” she said. Heffernan is optimistiic about New Zealand’s chances in Glasgow. "We had a good series last time and New Zealand can only build from that, although it will depend on how the team performs on the day,” she said. Heffernan lives at Birdlings Flat on a sheep and cattle farm, and because of the isolation is forced to do a lot of training alone. “It’s hard to go road running on a cold, rainy night when you’re on your own,” she said. In addition to normal club practice Heffernan travels to Christchurch once a week to practice with fellow Canterbury players, Leigh Gibbs and Angela Pule, who are also in the New Zealand team. Their selections are all significant Gibbs also returning from injury, and she has been named as the New Zealand captain, and Pule is the one new cap in the team. Heffernan. began her netball career in the country, playing for the Akaroa club, and she was involved in Banks Peninsula representatiive netball until 1984.

She represented Canterbury Country from 1977 to 1984, then switched clubs to St Nicholas, and developed her obvious potential in the Canterbury competition. Netball success has not been limited to Heffernan in her family. Maxine Blomquist, her sister, is a former New Zealand re-

presentative. Heffernan has taken the court for the South Island in 1983, 1984 and 1986, and especially remembers the 1983 clash, when the South Islanders won, for the first time in nine years. She was selected in the Young Internationals in 1982 and 1985, with 1985 a particularly busy year. She was in the New Zealand team for the Aus-

tralia Games and, later, the world championships in London. Then, after her serious injury in London, came the long and difficult comeback to regain national selection. But not all Heffernan’s memories of London are bleak. She laughingly remembers one particular warm-up in London, when she and Karen Hendrickson went for a run down a corridor and noticed a fire-escape door, which led to a grass enclosure. They went into the area and proceded with their warm-up.

Luckily, Heffernan had to go to the toilet — and the pair barely made it back through the door when an official arrived to lock it. The enclosure was surrounded by barb wire and there was no other means of escape. “I think we told Lois (Lois Muir, the New Zealand coach) about it after the game,” she grinned.

This season so far has been gratifying for Heffernan. The early Swiss Maid league competition meant early-season fitness, which in turn, helped in her preparation for the New Zealand trials.

Heffernan hopes to continue playing netball for some years.

“As long as I am keen, and enjoying it, I’ll carry on,” she said.