Gretel Bueta has always wanted to be a young mother - just like her own mum, Janet, who gave birth to eldest son Kurt when she was 21. So when the former Gretel Tippett married Niko Bueta in March, parenthood was high on the newlyweds’ wishlist for what might happen next.
“There were babies everywhere, and I was just desperate to have a family of my own,’’ says Bueta. “But obviously with sport you push your body to the absolute limit every day, and you hear stories of people who can’t conceive and that was always in the back of my mind, and I didn’t want to wait and then not be able to.
“So it happened a lot sooner than we expected, but we were very excited, and the way it’s been embraced by the club and Netball Australia has blown my mind.
“I still love this game so much and I still want to give so much back. And just because I’ve decided to start a family, they haven’t just swept me to the side; they’ve brought me along for the journey of the 2020 season. It’s been amazing.’’
Bueta’s first child and Laura Geitz’s third are due within five days of each other, in the same Brisbane hospital, in January. Yet if Geitz has become a close friend as well as a long-time mentor and supporter, Bueta knew her initial call had to be to her Queensland Firebirds coach, Roselee Jencke, after the positive pregnancy test back in May.
“I thought ‘wow. I’ve got to tell Rose ASAP’,’’ the 27-year-old says. “She was so great. She was like ‘oh, OK Grets, you’re just gonna have to pick me up off the floor! I wasn’t expecting that phone call, but this is so exciting. One of the best things you can do in life is be a mother’.
“Everyone was just so incredible and I’m very thankful for that.’’
Despite Netball Australia’s ground-breaking parental leave provisions and the successful returns of the likes of Geitz, Bec Bulley and April Brandley after maternity breaks in recent years, it remains unusual for a player to take time out for motherhood when their playing career is at its zenith.
But, then, during an eventful past decade, the reigning Liz Ellis Diamond winner has often dared to be different.
By switching sports at the age of 18, for example, after representing Australia at international level in basketball and being named the WNBL’s rookie-of-the-year. Or through an unconventional playing style that has always been far more instinctive than deliberate, for spotlight-seeking has never been Bueta’s natural game.
“I used to get so worked up when people would say ‘oh, you love playing with flair’ or ‘you love people looking at you when you play’. I was like ‘oh, I can see where you get that from, 100 per cent, but if you knew me at school I hated attention on me, I didn’t want that',’’ she says.
“I just think you have to embrace your natural style and know your strengths, and I’d back myself any day doing a lay-up over a long shot - especially when I started! I was doing anything I could just to get the ball in the hoop, pretty much.’’
Indeed, to say Bueta’s netball career did not start terribly well would be an understatement. Having missed selection in her first district team in 2012, the teenager was invited to play in the Queensland State League after just a handful of social games. A towering athlete was, in netball terms, still terribly raw.
During that first month of training with the Golden South Jaguars, she needed to learn the rules. Then adjust her footwork. Shooting, netball-style? Well, that took a while longer. On debut, playing a half at goal shooter, she famously racked up 13 air balls. A reporter from the local Gold Coast Bulletin was not the only one underwhelmed.
“There was all this hype about me being in the team and I didn’t like it at all,’’ Bueta laughs. “I just remember reading ‘the not-so-fairytale start for Gretel’ in the paper the next day. And I was like ‘very true’. It was awful!’’
What did appeal was the sport itself, as well as the sense of community, the camaraderie, the willingness of so many to welcome, teach and encourage. “I loved the game. I loved how athletic it was. The team environment. I loved the professionalism and how it had this awesome culture that I wanted to be around.
“I aspired to be better and once I really got in and got competitive, I’d look up to the Firebirds and the Diamonds and watch them on TV. The rivalry against New Zealand, I was like ‘wow. I’d love to one day be a part of that’. So that’s kind of what lured me.’’
As to why she stayed, despite some deflating early experiences that, admittedly, contrasted with a fast-tracked route into the Firebirds squad as a replacement player and then the World Youth Cup team within barely 12 months of starting out?
“I loved the challenge of having to get better and I knew I had a long way to go and that excited me,’’ Bueta admits.
“I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. But I’ve also been very blessed with opportunities along the way and the right people investing time and seeing something in me, which I’m very thankful for. It’s got me to where I am.’’
Even if, en route, few players have received such savage critiques. Her unorthodox style, early reluctance to shoot and uncommon (192cm) height for a goal attack who made a spectacular Constellation Cup debut on the wing meant she was either described as a revolutionary game-changer, and the future of the sport, or polarising and controversial.
“It was hard because I’m naturally a people-pleaser and you want people to like you,’’ she says. “When you get judged for how you play, I was like ‘I’m just trying to figure it out and play the game I love’. But in a way it was also good for me in terms of building that resilience and learning to be OK with being different, and with bringing something different.
“That’s where I was really lucky to have teammates like Geitzy and Clare Ferguson, and Kim Green and Sharni Layton (at the NSW Swifts in 2014). They were all older players who really embraced that and said they loved that style and to bring it. Rose Jencke embraced it as well. And Margie Caldow and Megan Anderson, the Diamonds shooting coaches, they were amazing.’’
To Bueta, Geitz and Ferguson are “like my two older sisters I’ve never had’’. Both were members of the bridal party back in March when Ms Tippett became Mrs Bueta, and if the name change still trips up some commentators, then Gretel says it was an easy decision to make.
“It’s kind of fun having a new last name. It’s like you start again!’’ she jokes. "That’s what my mum and my grandma did, and I wanted to take my husband’s last name. We’re a team now.
“But it’s been interesting getting used to it. When people say my name, I’m like ‘wait, that’s me - Bueta!!’ I can’t wait to run out on court with the new last name on my back, but Tippett’s obviously still very, very special to me, too.’’
It was on her Firebirds dress, following that initial Swifts cameo, for 77 games and two premierships. It was there for five years, and 36 Tests, as part of Commonwealth Games and World Cup silver medal-winning teams for the Diamonds. Next year, in several respects, a whole new chapter will begin.
“Bringing a baby into the world, he obviously comes first now, but I always have that passion and love for the sport, and I still want to be better. I am never content,’’ says Bueta.
“Looking back, it’s been such a journey. I wouldn’t change anything for the world. I’ve learnt so much as a player and a person and I can’t wait for the journey to continue.’’
