Allora netballer Laura Geitz will be inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in November. She was one of seven inducted announced last week, the group included retired Australian rugby league hooker Cameron Smith and AFL legend Jason Dunstall. Laura will be one of eight netballers in the Hall of Fame.
She played a little netball at Allora State School and in a mixed indoor competition at the Allora Sports Centre before getting serious about the sport while a student at Scots PGC College. From a young age, talent identifiers tipped Laura as a future State representative and Tracey Jeans Fraser travelling to Warwick on a number of occasions to one-on-one training sessions. Tracey Bruce and Amanda Van Der Wal were other coaches who helped develop Laura’s netball as she went through the age groups in Queensland teams.
She graduated from Scots PGC in 2005 and was soon playing netball for the Queensland Firebirds. Laura said she would not have achieved anything in the sport except for the support of her parents Ross and Jaunita Geitz who were “taxi drivers” to Warwick and Brisbane for training and gave her massive moral support. Now a mother of four, Laura said her husband Mark Gilbride was a huge part of the latter part of her career, especially in the captaincy role with the Diamonds. “Mark was rock solid in his support and I could always turn to him for advice,” she said.
She can’t name a career high but one which stands out was the dual Firebirds premierships in 2015 and 2016 and the wins by the Diamonds in the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2015 World Cup in Sydney. “The captaincy journey was incredible, I learnt a lot about myself.” Laura won the Liz Ellis Medal for Australian Player of the Year in 2011 and played 169 games for the Firebirds and 71 internationals for the Diamonds.
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