By Stephanie Smarrelli
With his first season of Suncorp Super Netball under the belt as head coach of the Melbourne Mavericks, Gerard Murphy is confident the side’s best is yet to come.
Speaking to netball.com.au after the side’s Minor Semi Final exit against West Coast Fever, Murphy believes the Mavericks still have another level to reach.
“I’m really happy with how we've progressed, but there's definitely room for improvement,” he said.
“Nothing's broken but we can absolutely optimise and improve further.
"We know we've got more there that we can get out of each player, for some we can get five per cent extra, some we can get 10 per cent.
“If we keep doing that with each person, we're going to be in a really good position to keep pushing teams and be competitive next year.”
Despite being knocked out of finals, the head coach was happy with his team’s performance throughout 2026.
“We progressed pretty well, which is what I had thought we would do and hoped we would get to,” he said.
"I was happy with the improvement that the girls showed. They did a great job at taking on and sticking to our culture and goals to continually improve.
“We're going to make mistakes and that's okay.”
Murphy believes one of the biggest turning points came early in the season when the Mavericks proved they could match it with the competition's best.
“The turning point in our season was the win we had against Lightning in April,” he said.
Murphy believes the team's turning point was against Lightning.
“That extra time loss to Vixens, we knew we were on track and competing well early in the season against them and the Swifts.
“While we didn't win those early games, the girls were a bit shocked that they were so close and realised we can do this.
"Once we started stringing those wins together, beating the GIANTS for our third win in a row was a big moment. Then hitting Perth and beating Fever during the season was another big one, it just kept building.”
As the Mavericks’ confidence grew, so too did the combinations across the court.
Murphy singled out several partnerships that flourished throughout the season, including the combination between Reilley Batcheldor and the recently retired Maddie Hay.
"Maddie to Roo probably was a big one,” he said.
“Maddie coming on board late to replace Molly and built herself into the team.
“Then Reilley to Shimona, Reilley was developing in goal attack and working with a tall shooter which she hasn’t done before.
"Those attacking combos were impressive.”
While the attacking combinations developed steadily throughout the season, Murphy was equally pleased with the growth of the defensive unit.
"Kim and Amy had a strong connection,” he said.
“But it was probably Jessie and Kim building their relationship that made a big difference.
Murphy was impressed with how the combinations developed across the court throughout the season.
"Jamie-Lee and Amy already had a strong connection with Maddie so it was more the new ones that really built nicely.”
Murphy also reflected on how the season shaped his development as a head coach and the lessons he learned.
One of those was navigating the Suncorp Super Shot.
“The Suncorp Super Shot has been the hardest thing,” he said.
"We don't have that in our pathway, apart from SN Reserves, which is different so that is one challenge to try to work out and overcome.
“We experimented a lot with it early in the season and then where we were at as a team was stabilising again.
“We really decreased the emphasis on super shotting so as not to rely on that and we really stuck to the one-point game.
“We will continue to explore that and how we can leverage it better for next season.”
The other lesson was trusting himself.
"It’s trusting my knowledge, instinct and gut,” he said.
“Sometimes that’s realising I should have made a change earlier, sometimes that’s learning not to make the change and just to let it sit.
“That's a part of coaching evolution, knowing your team better, when the right time is and which opposition you're playing against.
Murphy acknowledged he's still developing his coaching alongside the athletes.
“We'll just keep getting better at that.”
Murphy conceded his side fell short of their best in the Minor Semi Final against Fever, believing the occasion highlighted the value of finals experience.
"We had opportunities to go ahead a bit earlier and compete a bit earlier, and unfortunately we were left in reactive mode,” he said.
“That puts an extra little bit of pressure on.
“Plus there were a few things happening during the week, team-based things at the club which were unfortunate in timing and a bit disruptive to our preparation but those things happen.
“As an inexperienced team, we were not able to really bring that extra few per cent that we needed to really push Fever and that was a bit disappointing for me.”
While emotions were raw after the defeat, Murphy said the greater disappointment for the team was knowing the season had come to an abrupt end.
“The worst thing isn’t actually the loss itself,” he said.
“It’s that it's the end of your season, tomorrow we don't have the normal schedule, we don't get to go in and see each other, train and gym, because the girls like going to training and do enjoy being together.
“It's sad that it finishes and to go out in that way... we really did underplay a bit.”
Despite that disappointment, Murphy's message to the playing group was simple.
“Overall, it was a really positive season with huge growth,” he said.
Murphy commended the team on a positive season.
“The pros of the season far outweigh the few moments of disappointment.
“It was half the team’s first time in finals and half of them have not been in finals for years.
“It's a big challenge and we will be better off for it next year.”
Looking ahead, Murphy believes continuity will be one of the Mavericks' greatest strengths.
"The goal is to keep the majority of the team if we can,” he said.
“That's the intention, we've got a good team, lots of options and everyone's bought in.
“We've done a lot of work this year, so hopefully it'll be similar. We'll be focused on advancing a bit more in some of our strategies and tools that are still relatively new and are probably only being implemented 50 to 60 per cent of the time on average.
“We've got a lot more opportunity to nail down and also our B and C games and options.
“The third thing we’ll look to improve is the repeat work rate that I expect and would like us to have.
“At times I felt we didn’t have that and that's a bit of fitness, it's a bit of combination work and having consistent strength and conditioning and a consistent team.
"With younger players being conditioned at SSN level to concentrate for 60 minutes is a big change...they need to be willing to grind out, work their guts out and be able to do that and concentrate in the moments of the game whatever their role is.”
For Murphy, that's what makes the Mavericks' inaugural finals appearance so exciting.
The foundations have been laid.
Now comes the next step.
