Leading the Way, the Pulse Way

By Paul Prenderville

When Sam Bird named her leadership group for the 2024 Netball Superleague season, she was spoiled for choice. An emerging crop of talented young players are continuing to grow together and are ready to take the team forward.

“We are all a similar age, and I have had the privilege of being captain and I have really enjoyed that,” captain Zara Everitt told us.

“But everyone is a leader in this team, everyone has their own responsibilities to make sure we pick each other up and get the best out of each other.”

Wing Defence Everitt will captain the team for a third successive season, and her vice captains are testament to the culture being built in East London. 

There is not much Jade Clarke has not done on the international and domestic stage and alongside her Olivia Tchine will take her first steps as a leader.

Tchine is schooled in the Pulse way, a product of the club’s Pathway programme where she has been since the age of 13. Clarke has played all over the world and knows what it takes to win.

As she approaches a remarkable 20 seasons of netball, in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, she is as well placed as any to talk about the roles and responsibilities of a team, the onus will not just be on Zara, Liv and herself – the whole team will step up.

“It helps to be around this group,” she says with a grin. “As you get older, you carry some extra baggage, and when you are younger you are fearless, so it helps me to be around this group who are just that.

“The style of play they bring, everyone brings something different. Players like Funmi and Hali who have burst onto the scene. Berri as well, the standard of young player is so high and hopefully I can teach them something as well.

“I enjoy doing the video analysis and leading by example and they are so instinctive around some of the tactical things. Funmi is also teaching me how to do a TikTok video!”

Jade Clarke

Clarke’s thoughts mirror those of her captain and her head coach. Bird knows she has a team of players she can trust to take responsibility when it matters most and they are only getting better.

Chelsea Pitman, Lindsay Keable and Ellie Rattu represent a wealth of experience to have moved on for a variety of reasons. Others will now step up, on the court and setting the tone for the weeks, and years ahead..

“Some of these girls have grown up through the club, we have players that are genuinely very passionate about the club and want to perform well for the club, I think they are ready.

“Some of the team are still quite angry about going so close last season – including me – but you learn every year and it makes you slightly better each year.

“There will be different challenges for this team, and although we were very strong last year experience and resilience has grown. Many who were playing in their first finals last year have now had an international season and have more experience under their belt in front of big crowds in big arenas.”

Sam Bird

Berri Neil and Funmi Fadoju have sparkled at either end of the court over the last couple of season, and are at the forefront of a bright and talented next generation for the England Roses.

Right now, their focus is on winning domestically. Brie Grierson told us that some of the delayed runners-up medals had turned up recently, but a couple of the players had thrown them to one side, a reminder of last season’s defeat to Loughborough Lightning in the Grand Final.

“I was one of them,” Neil laughs when questioned on the subject.

“I think we are a determined and passionate group. We just want to be at the top and we know that we are capable of it, so falling short was hard for a lot of us to take so we don’t want to have to put those silver medals on again.

“We finished top of the league last year and that was a big achievement for us as a club, but we know if we want to be right at the top of where we are aiming to be we need to win the final, there is definitely a lot of determination in the group this year.”

It is a mentality that is mirrored across every interview we’ve done in the build-up to the new season, and it is emphasised more than most by Fadoju, who has been at the club for seven years.

Like Neil, the all-action Goal Defence, is still just 21 but there is leadership emerging in her voice as well as the style of play. And it’s not just about teaching the others how to record a TikTok video.

“Pulse was my first ever team, I started when I was 13 years old, I’ve never played for anyone else and each year, through the age groups, I have learned something different,” she says, emphasising the franchise philosophy.

“After a while I feel like you are able to teach the girls who are younger than you and look up to you.

“I remember looking up to people like Hali [Halimat Adio] and Liv [Tchine] because they were the year above me, and now I am playing with them and I’m passing things on to people like Izzi [Phillips] and Darcie [Everitt] who have come into the squad this year.”

Funmi Fadoju

As the new season inches closer, we will leave the final word to the new captain. Everitt is pleased to have the whole squad together, even if it took a while with various international commitments.

A couple of weeks of intense, hard work with the group has only intensified the desire to push on from last season’s impressive showing.

“We’ve had people come and go, and those that have come have added their strengths along the way but it feels like we are now familiar with what our identity is as both a club and as a team,” Everitt says.

“There is a really strong core of players here, and those that are new are really keen to buy into our philosophy.

It’s hard not to be inspired.