Gold, Nigeria and a new home: the month that changed Grace Nweke

Grace Nweke is finally ready to put down roots. With barely enough time to unpack her bags in Sydney before it’s time to leave again, the Silver Ferns goal shoot has come to the realisation she isn’t cut out for the nomadic lifestyle.

“I’m readjusting and catching my breath a bit but also gearing up to get on the move again,” she says. “I’m living the dream, I guess.”

It’s been a whirlwind month for the 24-year-old, who’s established herself as netball’s most prolific shooter. She knocked off three significant goals: winning her first major title with the Silver Ferns at the Commonwealth Games, making her first-ever visit to Nigeria – her parents’ homeland – to coach a new era of netballers, and signing an historic three-year contract with Super Netball’s new team, the Sydney Sirens.

As she returns to Auckland, the city of her birth, this week to prepare to meet Australia in the Constellation Cup, it’s made Nweke seriously think about where home is.

For the past two years, she’s split her time playing for the New South Wales Swifts and her family home in Auckland. “I’ve been in this kind of limbo, not really having a base,” she says.

“So I’m really excited to sign with the Sirens for three years and to commit to making Sydney my home. I don’t want to live anywhere else right now.

“It’s taken a while to grow on me. Now the only thing missing is my people.”

Nweke’s father, Fortune, and mother, Chidinma, grew up in Nigeria and were living in South Korea when they were drawn to New Zealand in 2000. They’ve raised their six children here – Grace is one of two sets of twins.

Their Silver Fern daughter always yearned to see the place her family calls home, and the opportunity finally came last month returning from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

It wasn’t simply a visit. Nweke was invited by the Coming Home programme to coach and mentor a group of girls in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. Most of the girls, aged 14 to 20, have just come to netball from basketball.

“Coaching was such a humbling experience, and I feel very grateful to be able to give back through netball,” Nweke says.

“To connect and learn more about myself and my culture, and do that in the netball space, was really awesome.”

Netball in Nigeria is going through a massive revival. Popular in the 1960s and ‘70s, interest in the game withered with the growth of basketball. But there’s been a push this year to reintroduce the game in schools, and form the country’s first national netball team, the Green Hawks – who this week play in the African qualifier for next year’s World Cup in Sydney.

“It’s a sport that’s played in Nigeria but isn’t known and loved across the country yet. So to be in a space where we could start to grow the game and encourage netball as the sport girls take up was really cool. There’s a lot of talent and it’s exciting thinking about where the game could go in Nigeria over the next 10 years.”

Nweke will likely return to help that evolution.

It’s almost exactly five years since Nweke made a nervous debut for the Silver Ferns in a loss to England. And it was always obvious the 1.93m tall teenager, with an impressive reach and leap, would eventually stamp her mark on the game globally.

Back in July, she started her second Commonwealth Games campaign by notching up her 50th test, and ended as the top shooter of the tournament, on 229 goals at 90.5 percent accuracy. The nerves were still there, though.

Since having to be content with bronze in Birmingham four years earlier, Nweke was determined, almost gripped, with winning gold in Glasgow.

In the moments after the Ferns’ 56-48 final victory over Jamaica, Nweke sobbed with joy at winning her first serious title – in the wake of a harrowing 12 months around the standing-down of coach Dame Noeline Taurua.

“We always wanted to win Commonwealth gold and it’s so poetic we were able to do that this year, and determine how that story gets to end. To right some wrongs or at least heal some wounds,” she says.

“I wanted it so bad, and the fear we might not get it was an awful place to be. In the semifinal [against England] I was so sick because we had to win that game. I so badly wanted it to be my reality, I don’t know how I’d have coped if it wasn’t – which may be a future work-on for me.

“Once we won that game, the nerves for the final weren’t so intense, and there was a quiet surety, a belief we could do it.”

A year ago, Nweke made an impassioned public plea for Taurua’s reinstatement as coach at the end of the Taini Jamison series against South Africa. She says she has huge respect for the way Taurua navigated the past year and how she returned to the team just before Glasgow.

“She came in with such beautiful energy and excitement, her spirits were so high, and you wouldn’t expect that based on what she’s been through,” Nweke says. “We didn’t need to go back and talk about X, Y, Z. It was very forward-thinking, she had a game plan, and it was foolproof.

“All the years I’ve been part of this team, I’ve never had so much fun. There was both joy and performance.”

Nweke arrives in Auckland on Thursday to see friends and family before next week’s Silver Ferns training camp. While the immediate focus is on reclaiming the Constellation Cup – decided last year in a tie-break – her thoughts are already on next year’s World Cup.

“It keeps me so excited and giddy talking about that real possibility of playing for gold in Sydney. That’s the ultimate goal,” she says.

Nweke isn’t keen on labels like trendsetter or trailblazer. Still, her decision to join the Swifts in 2024 led the way for other Silver Ferns to play in the Suncorp Super Netball league this season. That, of course, became even more consequential as New Zealand players turned to offshore competitions when a domestic league in 2027 looked doubtful.

“I didn’t set out to start a trend or make waves. I was thinking what’s next and how can I grow and be better. The move made a lot of sense and I’m really happy I did it. It’s funny when I think how close I came to not doing it,” she says.

In her two seasons with the Swifts, Nweke helped shoot them to third and then fifth. “It wasn’t without challenges, off and on the court – coming close to big moments and falling short. But there were some awesome people, friendships and relationships I’ll have throughout my career,” she says.

While she was disappointed to see the demise of the ANZ Premiership, she’s “proud” of the players who’ve taken up professional contracts in SSN and England’s Super Netball.

“While we were in Glasgow, I gave some advice and encouragement to all the girls who came to me,” she says. “I don’t know if the Aussie fans realise they’ve got some real gems, some genuinely awesome people who will really benefit their clubs. I’ve pretty much got a mate in every state now.”

Her former Mystics and Ferns teammate Claire O’Brien is returning home to Sydney and lining up in the Sirens side.

“Cob’s a huge get. She’s very unassuming but a force to be reckoned with. I’m excited to have her personality, leadership and skillset on court – she’s got a great feed and she’s fearless,” Nweke says.

Nweke is the first Kiwi to sign a three-year SSN deal. The Sirens replace the Giants franchise, formerly owned by AFL club Greater Western Sydney and bought out by media mogul Craig Hutchinson last month.

She’d always wanted to be a foundation member of a new club – “being a thread in the fibre of a new team culture.”

“As I go through my career, I’m learning about what’s bigger than netball, than winning, and medals, and selections,” she says. “It’s the legacy piece, connection and community. I’ve seen that firsthand at the Mystics and the Silver Ferns, and now I can share that knowledge with a new group.

“I always wanted to do two seasons, then I thought, ‘What’s one more?’ It gives me job security and it’s a sign of my intent and commitment to be part of something, to be all in.”

After the Constellation Cup, starting October 18, Nweke will start looking for a place to call her own in Sydney. “I want continuity in my personal life. All the things that make up my life over here are in storage right now. I want somewhere to hang my pictures, put out my little trinkets and a kitchen that’s mine,” she says.

She also plans to resume her Bachelor of Commerce studies, majoring in information systems and marketing, after a two-year hiatus.

Nweke has struck a deal with Netball New Zealand, allowing her to be based in Sydney when she’s not in training camps or in international series.

“I told them I’ve had a pretty tumultuous 18 months, and I don’t see Auckland as home now,” she says. “I’m really stoked they were on board with it.” For Nweke, this is living the dream.