You're probably wondering, so let’s get the story of Uneeq Palavi’s unusual name out of the way first.
The Samoan mother and Tongan father of the third-year Victorian Fury squad member christened her Uneeq “because I’m one of a kind”.
And the puns that followed have kept on coming.
“The one thing people always say is ‘oh, that’s such a unique name’. I hear it every single day of my life,’’ Palavi laughs. It must drive her mad? “Yeah, at times it can.’’
So to Palavi’s netball story. It started when she was a 12-year-old in Melbourne’s outer west, encouraged by mum Maria - “the netball player of the family, and I hear a lot of stories about how amazing she was, so I guess I get it from her!’’ - to join the local footy/netball club, the Werribee Centrals.
A shooter then; a shooter still. One who had an advocate in Westside Saints rep coach Darren Abela to help her gain entry to the zone academy program, from where she earned her first state team selection as a bottom-age 17/U, and has worked her way steadily along the Netball Victoria pathway ever since.
In contrast to a horribly inactive 2020 Palavi describes as "unbearable. I was just itching to get back on court and just do anything", the high point so far has been the gloriously pre-Covid days - remember them? - of 2019.
Not only was Palavi chosen in the national 19/U pathway squad with fellow Victorians Allie Smith, Gabby Coffey and Sacha McDonald - current Vixen Hannah Mundy joined the quartet for a national five-day camp at the Australian Centre of Excellence in Canberra - but she represented Tonga in the Pacific Games in Samoa and was part of the Fury’s seventh and most recent premiership team.
That latter opportunity came as a replacement for Rahni Samason, who cruelly ruptured her ACL during the pre-season. Palavi may have subsequently received fewer minutes on the Fury match court than she had wanted, but the rookie also knows and accepts why.
“I was just grateful for all the opportunities I was given back in 2019, and I just felt like I was on top of the world, I guess you could say,’’ she says.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get the (ANL) court time that I thought I would, and at times it was a bit disheartening, but I also understood that with all the girls above me I just needed to take in everything that I could during training, and put 100% in my game when I would be called up on the court.’’
Former Diamond and Vixens great Eloise Southby, the Fury's shooting coach, taught Palavi plenty. “She gave me so much confidence when I wasn’t feeling it sometimes, just lifted me up, and having her give me her expertise was unreal, really.’’
Seeing the likes of junior contemporaries Smith, Mundy, West Coast's Sunday Aryang and Giant Sophie Dwyer excel in Suncorp Super Netball has helped the 20-year-old realise how close she is. Or, hopefully, soon might be.
“Yeah, it gives me a real push in the back, because knowing that I’ve trained alongside these amazing athletes gives me the drive I need to remind myself that ‘come on, I’m almost there, really, I just have to put in that extra 200% that they’re also doing’.''
When last measured, Palavi stood at 187cm, but often hears - and dares to believe - she is still growing. Her strength is in the air; part of her challenge, like Samason's, is to add goal attack skills, movement and endurance to her repertoire, given the height of current holding-style shooters.
“I’ve been told a lot while coming up in the netball world that although I’m tall in this league that I’m playing in, when I go up to the higher grades like SSN... I need to transition into goal attack a lot more and it’s what I’m working towards.’’
Meanwhile, she retains her respect and admiration for Samason, whose remarkable round five Suncorp Super Netball debut Palavi watched enthusiastically from her couch after the Vixens relocated at short notice north to Queensland in late May.
“Rahni, I don’t know where to start with her! I’ve always looked up to her since I really got to know her - she’s just so well-spoken, and seeing her get out on that court, being called up by the Vixens out of nowhere and then taking on that court like it was hers, it really inspired me to remind myself that I can do that as well.
“I was screaming at the TV when she got that last shot. I was so happy!’’
Palavi, too, has had the chance to train in the elite world of the Vixens, which is a huge step up. “It sure is. Especially when you’re in the same group as Kate Moloney. Non-stop. No breaks! It’s really taught me what they expect at that level, and I’m stoked if I ever get the opportunity to be part of that again.’’
That is at least logistically possible, given Victoria’s newly co-operative Covid state, although the lingering tentacles of the coronavirus have ensured that nothing is exactly as it was.
Which means that the former version of the ANL that was cancelled altogether in 2020 has been reinvented as a carnival-style event to be held in the Latrobe Valley town of Traralgon from 11-19 September.
Palavi - whose state junior nickname was "Sparky, because I sparkle when I sweat, which is weird", she laughs - has been named in the broader squad to which current Vixens may also be added, and will be trimmed to 12 late next month.
“I'd be pretty stoked to be selected because it would just feel like another nationals, to be honest, having all of us together for a whole week. So having that opportunity if I make the team… I’m just excited for everything.’’
So, Palavi’s goals should she make it to Traralgon?
“Just to get my full potential out of myself. Even if I’m not making the team, it’s also taking away from the training sessions I get to go to; it’s just finding what I couldn’t find in myself a few years ago I guess.
“I’m actually taking this opportunity with both my hands, where the first time I got called in to play I was always doubting myself and didn’t really think that I deserved a spot.
“I always felt like because they called me in to cover for Rahni it was like I had to step up to the plate and do what she could do, when really I just had to be me and do what I could do.’’
Written by Linda Pearce
