New Mystics shooter Donnell Wallam. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
Donnell Wallam's rapid rise up the netball ranks must be one of the quickest in the history of the sport.
To say the Australian shooter was a late bloomer to netball is an understatement. Wallam, 31, is now playing for the Mystics in New Zealand's ANZ Premiership.
In 2022, she got her Australian Diamonds debut at the age of 28. Four years before that no one had heard of Donnell Wallam because she wasn't even playing state league netball.
Wallam grew up in rural Western Australia, in a town called Harvey, 140 kilometres south of Perth. She had minimal access to sporting development pathways and gravitated towards basketball.
"My Dad played footy, Mum played basketball and growing up with lots of cousins you'd always play some sort of sports together and I guess that's probably where my love of sport came from," Wallam said.
"I played netball at school and played social netball for my little home town against the other country towns. But when I was young I was in basketball pathways so I was kind of locked into that path."
She went on to play in the Western Australia state basketball league.
Wallam got to a stage in her 20s where she had had enough of basketball and picked up social netball again. Then she started travelling to a nearby town to play more competitively.
Crucially it was there that she was coached by Daniel Cools, who played in the Western Australia men's state team and later the Australian men's team.
After one season Cools encouraged her to try out for the West Australian Netball League (WANL) and put her in touch with a team.
"He said 'you've got nothing to lose' and I was a bit nervous at first but went to the trials and played two years for the West Coast Warriors and loved my time there."
Wallam, who by now was living and working in Perth, picked up the 2019 league MVP award in her first year in the WANL and then again in 2020.
Wallam was selected in a WA All-Stars team to take on the West Coast Fever in a pre-season game in 2020 where she came up against the Australian goal keeper Courtney Bruce.
Playing in front of a crowd of over 4000 people, Wallam took the court part way through the first quarter and finished with 49 goals and was a real handful for Bruce.
"It was pretty crazy and I guess for me seeing my performance against Courtney Bruce who is one of the best defenders in the world, to see that I could match it with her gave me a lot of confidence and made me want to go further because I was like 'if I can match it with Courtney Bruce, what else can I do?' So playing in that game was really fun and I guess eye opening for me."
The West Coast Fever then turned around and signed Wallam as a training partner, following her standout performance.
In 2021 Wallam went right outside her comfort zone when she took up her first full contract for the Leeds Rhinos in the UK Netball Superleague.
"It was my first time overseas so it was scary but really exciting ...it was really good to be exposed to a high performance environment and just learn what's expected at that level and I really enjoyed my time in England."
Wallam then earned her first contract in the Australian league when she was signed by the Queensland Firebirds for the 2022 Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) season.
In 2022 she was named SSN Rookie of the Year and in October that year got her Diamonds debut. It was an extraordinary rise up the ranks.
Donnell Wallam in her debut for Australia. Photo: Bradley Kanaris
When did Wallam start thinking she might good enough to make the Diamonds?
"I guess it wasn't until I got into the environment, I remember making the team but then not sure how I was going to go and then it's not until you get into the environment and you start to relax a little bit that you know your capabilities so I guess it was not until I was in there.
"It is crazy to think what I've achieved in the few years that I've been playing, but for me it's just enjoying the journey."
Wallam, who likes to follow the WNBA, brings a bit of basketball flavour to the netball court.
"Sometimes the court opens up for me to do a lay-up in the circle and it's a bit of fun I enjoy it but for me the main thing is just getting the goal in the post," she laughs.
Does Wallam wish she had gone down the netball path earlier?
"I sometimes do wish I got into competitive netball a bit earlier but I am also a firm believer that every happens for a reason so this is the path I'm on and I'm just trying to enjoy it."
Perhaps Wallam's success in netball has been in part due to her later start.
"When I started playing competitively I was a bit more mature, knew my body better and what I really wanted to get out of the sport I guess, and I really enjoyed playing it competitively and then I just loved the game and wanted to go further. Then I had the opportunity to go over to England for my first contract and I've just gone from there. I guess once you're older you have a new outlook in life."
It's a little surprising that Wallam has only played five tests for Australia since her 2022 debut. Wallam just missed out on selection for the Diamonds squad for the 2023 Netball World Cup, but was one of three travelling reserves.
She's competing for one of the four shooting spots in the national team with Kiera Austin, Cara Koenen, Sophie Garbin, and Sophie Dwyer.
Last year, Wallam shot more long-range super shots than any other goal shooter in the SSN. She had the second highest tally for total goals in 2023 and 2024, just behind the most prolific shooter in the world - Jamaican Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard.
It came as a shock to fans in Australia when the Queensland Firebirds let go of her after three seasons, instead signing 2.01m Ugandan shooter Mary Cholhok.
It underlines how cut-throat the Australian competition has become. With its unlimited imports policy, just two out of the eight teams in the SSN have Australian players in the starting goal shooter position in 2025.
Wallam is still eligible for the Diamonds despite playing in the New Zealand league. She's enjoying her time at the Mystics and leads the goal scoring after two rounds of the ANZ Premiership.
"For me I'm not really focussed on getting to the end point or anything like that, it's just enjoying every moment because I have come into the sport so late so I just don't know when I'm going to be finished with netball or when something else will come up so for me it's just enjoying it."
