Identical twins Kate and Georgia Heffernan have pulled off something no New Zealand netball family has managed before. Inside a single weekend, the Silver Ferns sisters booked grand final places on opposite sides of the Tasman, one in Invercargill and one in Adelaide, and their parents were left trying to follow both games at once.
Georgia, who captains the Southern Steel, led her side to a 60-54 win over the Mainland Tactix in the ANZ Premiership elimination final at ILT Stadium in Invercargill. The result sent the Steel through to their first grand final in eight years, where they meet the Northern Mystics at The Trusts Arena in Auckland. As RNZ reported, the Steel had not reached the decider since 2018, which made the run all the more satisfying for a team that has rebuilt through a season of change.
At almost exactly the same time, across the Tasman, Kate Heffernan helped the Adelaide Thunderbirds to a 58-44 win over the Melbourne Vixens in the major semifinal of Australia’s Suncorp Super Netball competition. That win, confirmed by Netball Australia, made the Thunderbirds the first side into their grand final and handed the club a week off while the other finalists fought for the right to face them.
For a netball-mad family, the timing turned into a small logistical puzzle. With one daughter playing in Invercargill and the other in Adelaide, the Heffernans had to keep one eye on the court in front of them and one on a phone screen. “Our parents and family were in the stand at my game in Invercargill, while they had Kate’s game playing on their phone,” Georgia told RNZ.
Kate said the first she heard of her sister’s result came from family waiting at her own match. “After we finished, I found him in the crowd and it was the first thing he said, telling me that the Steel won, which was so exciting,” she said.
The double has a deeper family thread running through it. The twins’ mother Annette played for the Silver Ferns in the 1980s, and so did their aunt Maxine. Annette and Maxine were the first pair of sisters to play international netball for New Zealand. Kate and Georgia are now writing the next chapter of that story, only this time as twins chasing titles in two different leagues in the same season.
The sisters spent years playing alongside each other at the Steel before Kate made the move to Adelaide this year. The switch became possible after Netball New Zealand changed its eligibility rules to allow overseas-based players to be picked for the Silver Ferns, opening the door for New Zealanders to test themselves in the Australian league without giving up their black dress. Nine Silver Ferns are now playing in Super Netball, and Kate has been among the standout performers in her debut season, used mostly at centre.
Her form has been rewarded off the court as well as on it. Kate has been named vice-captain of the Silver Ferns for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, with 39 test caps since her debut in 2022, a tally that already includes the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2023 Netball World Cup. Georgia has also been selected for Glasgow, which means the twins will line up together in black again later this year after a season spent on opposite sides of the Tasman.
The two grand finals fall a week apart. Georgia’s comes first, with the Steel facing the Mystics in Auckland, where the southern side will look to upset a Mystics outfit that finished the regular season on top. Kate’s Thunderbirds wait until the following Saturday, when they will play the winner of the preliminary final between the Melbourne Vixens and West Coast Fever for the Super Netball crown.
Georgia, who is leading the Steel with regular captain Kimiora Poi sidelined, said the team felt ready for the moment. “Having Wendy is so great. Wendy’s messaging, just to embrace it and all the work that we’ve done over the season, we’re so ready for it,” she told the Otago Daily Times, referring to Steel coach Wendy Frew, a two-time championship winner as a player.
Whatever happens across the two finals, the Heffernans have already secured a piece of New Zealand netball history. Two sisters, raised in the same household and coached through the same junior ranks, reaching the biggest game of their respective seasons in the same week is the kind of story that does not come around often. For a family that has been threading netball through three generations, it is a fitting way to mark a season that has stretched them in opposite directions while pulling them closer together.
Will both twins lift a trophy, or will one have to settle for runner-up while the other celebrates? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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