Swifts netball veteran Pettitt to play on

Jul 29, 2016 - 6:12 AM - The ironwoman of the NSW Swifts Susan Pettitt is looking forward to playing in a third big netball competition for Australian teams after never missing a match in the second.

Shooter Pettitt played in the very first trans-Tasman competition grand final in 2008 and will play in the last one on Sunday against defending champions the Queensland Firebirds in Brisbane.

Pettitt 32, also played for the-then Sydney Swifts in the last two grand finals of the previous all-Australian competition in 2006-07.

She was on the winning side in all three season deciders, but that streak was shattered last year when the Firebirds scored a dramatic one-goal win over NSW.

A decade of intense competition hasn't dulled her desire or diminished her appetite, with Pettitt eager to play in the new domestic eight-team tournament starting in 2017.

"My body and my mind is still very passionate about netball," Pettitt told AAP.

Her body is also obviously very resilient as she played in every Swifts game in the nine-year history of the ANZ Championship and also in plenty of Tests for the Diamonds.

"It's a pretty good feat, I think," Pettitt said.

"In any teams, I don't think you see many players not miss a game due to injury, so I've been very very fortunate so far.

"We have a great program behind us and you need a bit of luck as well.

"Injuries happen when you are in the wrong place at the wrong time so, fortunately, I've not been involved in that."

Pettitt accepts the Swifts will be the underdogs on Sunday against a Firebirds side who have won all 11 home matches they have played against NSW and have never lost a finals match in Brisbane.

"They are going in favourites, there's no doubt, because they are playing really good netball," Pettitt said.

"We're aware of that and we know we have to bring our A game to beat that.

"We beat them in round nine (in Sydney). If you go back to that game, we played the Swifts' way.

"We played the ball the way we want to play it. We played short and sharp."

Source: AAP