Severn Stars have promoted their squad from champions Manchester Thunder for its 2020 Vitality Superleague time with the registering of Liana Leota.
Stars have swooped to make one of the competition performers with signing season underway across the Superleague.
Leota has enjoyed a four decades using Thunder, culminating in a 57-52 Grand Final victory over Wasps in the Grand Box in May, but the New Zealander has chosen for a fresh challenge before the new season.
The 34-year-old, World Cup runner-up in 2011 and plus a Commonwealth silver medallist at 2014, heads to combine up.
Additionally, it represents a reunion with a face in the shape of Stars’ new head coach as she has taken at the franchise after the death of Sam Bird Melissa Bessell, who coached Leota as a teenager.
“I am just excited to begin. It is a fresh battle with a new franchise for me personally and I can not wait,” the former New Zealand international completely told Sky Sports.
“Melissa explained to me that she has such a talented group of young players but was keen to have somebody with expertise and knowledge of them . For me personally, it was a case of whether I wanted to take on that challenge.
“To have the ability to generate a difference to the younger players was something brand new for me. With Thunder we had such a fantastic group of mature players, anyone can come in and out, but today it’s around me to attempt to make a difference with these young ones.”
Bessell is something of a mentor for Leota, who is keen to make the move and having worked at Manchester together with the Pathway teams she will continue that with an opinion to her profession that is post-netball.
“Once the whistle goes a trainer can not do anything, so [I want] to be the player on the court which may hopefully offer the awareness, the expertise and the serenity that Melissa can not until the fracture.
“Melissa was a mentor for me as a teen in New Zealand when I was growing up and now that I like her strategy – she tells it the way it is – and us on this side of the world we’ve been sounding boards for each other.
“Once she got the Stars job with this type of girls that is exactly what got things going and, for me, I am now in that transitional period where I am asking if I’d like to coach.
“But, for now, I have a desire to play and to win and compete, but I am starting to look ahead of whether I wish to be a mentor – I love training and I’ve got a passion for it, but will I really be good?”
Bessell is thrilled to have a player of Leota’s standing on board as the Stars look to make the jump to being a contender.
She said:”This must be one of the greatest signings from the Vitality Superleague. Liana is not a world-class athlete, however, an incredible leader with an immense amount of knowledge and one of the very most populous, beautiful individuals in the game today.
“It is very exciting to have her playing for your Severn Stars this season. She is one of the most energetic players, having an innate understanding of the match. Dash and her passion is simply magical. I am quite pleased to be working together with her in my first season and am eager for another athletes to work alongside her.”
It brings to an end a fantastic fascination in Manchester to get Leota, who transferred to the Superleague in 2011 not long after being a part of the Silver Ferns squad which won gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
She has nothing but fond memories of her time with the franchise, having moved to play her netball alongside her husband Johnny who moved to play Sale Sharks rugby union in the UK.
“It turned out really, really difficult like I have had such a burst in Manchester. We have had great memories, some achievements. And I am quite pleased to have the ability to leave as a Superleague winner”
Sky Sports is your home of netball and it yields to your displays shortly, when they visit South Africa in November, although the Roses return to action under trainer Jess Thirlby beginning with theFast5 British philosopher on Saturday October 12.

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