WARRACK Eagles netballer Penny Fisher, 38, is about to reach a 400 senior game milestone.
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Fisher has played for three different clubs over the span of her career, she started at Rainbow Football and Netball Club and stayed at the club through the amalgamation with Jeparit Football and Netball Club.
She played 215 senior netball games with the club.
Fisher played 53 games with Kalkee and has played 131 games for the Warrack Eagles so far.
Fisher said her 400th senior game could come in round four of the Wimmera Netball Association against Horsham on Saturday.
Warrack Eagles, Horsham and Penny Fisher have been involved in a lot of history together.
The Warrack Eagles and Fisher lost the 2014 A Grade grand final to Horsham before defeating Horsham by one goal in the 2015 A Grade grand final.
“I played the 2015 season with a partial tear in my ACL,” she said.
“When I found this out I was devastated as I knew we had a pretty good side that year and didn’t want to miss it so when we were walking out of the surgeons office my husband said to me, ‘you have played 5 games already with the tear. You have to have a reconstruction no matter what so why don’t you just keep playing and if it fully goes it goes – the end result is still the same.’ So that’s what I did.”
Coach Jane Richardson and Lynley Clyne were the only people who knew she had a partial tear in her ACL.
Fisher was named best on court for the match.
“I made it through and we beat Horsham by a goal in the grand final. I wouldn’t have changed it for the world but I am paying for it now,” she said.
Fisher received surgery on her knee at the end of 2015 and took the 2016 season off.
Fisher said over the course of her career no player has been more talented than Megan Shea of Ararat.
“The hardest opposition team I think would have to be Horsham. They were such a powerhouse a few years ago with a phenomenal winning record. They had a team that had played together for a long time and they were very hard to beat,” she said.
Fisher’s illustrious career includes countless team and personal accolades, she won two premierships with Jeparit-Rainbow, three with Kalkee and one with Warrack Eagles.
She has also received three Mallee league, two Wimmera league and one Horsham District league best and fairest awards.
Fisher said the premiership wins are what means most to her.
“Being able to achieve a common goal with a great bunch of girls after a lot of hard work is very rewarding and is a feeling like no other,” she said.
“Something you can’t go past is the friendships you form along the way – I now have lifelong friends for not only me but my family and that is all because of netball.”
Fisher started playing netball when she was seven, she played in a division called E Grade.
Her first senior game came at Rainbow when she was 13 years old, in C and B Grade in 1992.
Fisher said she knows a netballer is out of the game for a long time once they retire.
“I always thought I would try and keep playing at the highest level while I could. While you are around a good bunch of girls who have a drive to want to win and get better it is hard to not want to play,” she said.
“At Warrack a few of us have played together a long time now so it is pretty special knowing what can be achieved. I always think that while you still want to learn and you think you still have something to give then you should keep playing.”