Netball: The missed email that changed Sunshine Coast Lightning star Maddy McAuliffe's life

Sunshine Coast Lightning star Maddy McAuliffe revealed she almost missed her professional call up when a fateful email was sent to her junk folder.

After progressing through the youth system McAuliffe, like many aspiring netballers, found herself at a crossroads considering her professional future.

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“There’s that risk that once you age out of underage commitments, there’s sort of a bit of a gap there if you haven’t cracked anything by then,” McAuliffe told Wide World of Sports.

“I had that fear, it was a bit of limbo. What was the next step for me?

“I thought ‘is this is really want I want?’, netball was really fun but maybe it’ll just be something that I just never really make it in.

“It was time to make the choice, which is something I wasn’t looking forward to.”

However, after Shannan Eagland fell pregnant McAuliffe got her first bite at the cherry with a trial at the Adelaide Thunderbirds.

Despite missing out on a contract after an intensive week, the 20-year-old had gotten a taste of the big time.

She returned home with no questions on her mind – this is what she was meant to do.

“Obviously, it was disappointment no making it at that level, but it was that moment that re-established my passion for making it,” she recalled.

“That was the moment where I realised, this is something I really wanted to do.”

With the launch of three new netball teams in 2016 McAuliffe set about shopping herself to the amassing squads.

It was a frenetic period of endless show reels and call-backs, but by late 2016 McAuliffe was “convinced she had missed out” as she began focusing on her career in corporate PR.

“I almost missed it,” McAuliffe chuckled looking back on that period.

She was referring to the life changing email sent to her by Sunshine Coast lightning coach Noeline Taurua after she had misplaced the aspiring star’s number.

“I got an email from Noles that went to my junk mail,” she said.

“I almost missed it!

“It said, ‘I’ve lost your number, can you please send it to me?’

“She called within the hour and asked if I wanted to play for the Lightning.”

McAuliffe credits her fairy-tale journey to the Super Netball to her supportive family, in particular her mum who ignited her passion for the sport.

“My family has been incredible, always, especially my mum she the reason I got into netball, she was my coach from when I first started in grade to 2-6,” she said.

“She still comes to every netball game and flies around the country.

“She’s a massive netball nerd, she follows all the forums online.

The Sunshine Coast Lightning take on West Coast Fever in the 2018 Suncorp Super Netball grand final. You can follow all the action live on Channel Nine and 9Now from 1pm.