The former England international and Scotland's head coach also gives her take on who she thinks should lead England as captain at a home Commonwealth Games; England's campaign to defend their title starts on July 29 in Birmingham
Friday 11 March 2022 14:56, UK
Tamsin Greenway discusses Serena Guthrie’s retirement, the impact it has on England’s squad and who she thinks should take over as England captain going into a home Commonwealth Games.
Although we had all been waiting for some form of announcement about Serena, given the fact that she had not started the season with Team Bath after playing so brilliantly in the Quad Series, the fact that it contained her retirement really hit the netball community hard.
Firstly, it's absolutely fantastic news for Serena and Bob that they're starting a family together and that Serena is expecting her first child. Becoming a mother will be a truly wonderful new chapter for her and it's incredibly exciting for them both.
From a netball perspective, Serena's retirement is enormous for England and for the sport as a whole. It's no exaggeration to say that it's the end of an era.
Serena is one of the best players to have ever stepped on a court, but she also brought so much to the sport. Everyone knows who Serena Guthrie is; she's such a character and a beautiful person inside and out. Serena lights up a room and she's done that as an elite-level netballer since she was 16 years old.
We always knew that Serena was something special and quite simply, she changed the game for us in England.
When myself and a number of other senior players retired, Serena and the individuals who came through with her - such as Jo Harten and Helen Housby - were the ones who made the netballing world take England Netball seriously. They truly changed the game and proved that England can beat Australia and New Zealand, both in a Test series and at a major tournament.
As Serena moves off the court and embraces this new chapter of her life, on-court England have a Commonwealth Games competition to focus on and one that they are entering as defending champions, on home soil.
Serena's departure has thrown England head coach Jess Thirlby the ultimate curveball in terms of selection... her absence changes everything.
During a Commonwealth Games or World Cup year, I always say to players to keep their heads down and to keep on working hard because things always happen. Sadly, it's normally injuries that affect some players' prospects and provide opportunities for others, but in this case, it's a much happier reason for the field opening up.
Serena has left absolutely enormous shoes to fill, both in mid-court and in terms of the captaincy.
England's last major competition was on home soil at the Netball World Cup in 2019 and Serena was captain. There's absolutely no doubt that she would have led them at July's Commonwealth Games to defend their title.
In terms of the person that leads this group forwards as captain, then it has to be a player that's guaranteed to be selected and go to Birmingham.
Layla Guscoth, Helen Housby, Jo Harten and Beth Cobden are all individuals with their places in the squad secured. However, I think you need to look at Nat Metcalf as England's captain this summer.
Nat has done it before and she's a natural leader. She's very calm, level-headed and understands the job of being England captain.
Nat knows how to work with both the coaches and the players. A captain can't just be for the players, they have to complement the coach too. Tactically, she's very smart which means she'll tick all of Jess Thirlby's boxes because she always has a plan and objective.
Nat has a nurturing side to her which will bring this group together, but she's also gritty and uncompromising on court. She displays her determination and passion in a totally different way to Serena, but it's there. She will consistently put out top-class performances for her team and do a job for them.
When you step onto a court, you want to look at your captain and know that they're going to lead you home. For me, Nat is the natural progression as England's next captain.
In terms of England's mid-court, the obvious fallout from Serena's departure is the fact that there's now room for both Jade Clarke and Laura Malcolm in the squad for the Commonwealth Games, without shuffling too many other positions around.
Laura Malcolm can play across centre and wing attack, but I'd still argue that her best position is wing defence and wing defence is where she's played the majority of her court time this season. However, as a centre she is calm and enters the attack-end later, allowing Nat Metcalf the space to dictate the Roses attack. She's a different element in there and could be the starting option for Jess Thirlby.
I'd like to see Laura play a bit more across the centre position in the coming rounds; running 60 minutes at centre is hard especially against Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica, so it's important that she gets more court time there before the Games.
Jade Clarke's performances in the Netball Quad Series made us all think that she just couldn't be dropped, but at the same time, it was difficult to see how she fitted into the squad. The question mark often said about Jade is whether she's a full 60-minute International centre?
However, Jade's been doing exactly that week in and week out at Rhinos, and she's been doing it the hard way within a team that are still finding their feet with a new attacking line-up.
In Rhinos' last game against Wasps, Jade was a big reason why they won it. She was tactically smart in the final quarter, messing with Wasps with her game sense, interceptions and feeding. She's England's most-capped player of all time and she's showing that she's not done yet, far from it.
With England having lost Serena, they cannot replace her like for like, instead they need to look at options in mid-court. Jade might be the player who becomes the impact change at centre, just like she did against New Zealand in the Quad Series.
There are however some other options for England as well, some wild cards. Firstly, let's discuss Funmi Fadoju. I'm definitely not saying that England should take her as centre! But as Lisa Alexander said the other day, Funmi has the 'X-Factor' and she has a spark that I believe England need.
Serena was the sort of player who provided England with magical moments; she was always the one who got them turnovers when the momentum had gone against them. Countless times, one moment from Serena changed the energy of a match and Funmi is able to do this too.
If you end up taking Funmi then it allows someone like Beth Cobden to come out of wing defence and move into centre. It gives you cover and provides you with options that other countries haven't seen. Beth Cobden is another special player, she has the attacking ability in her, and she's more than capable of coming out to centre and creating a new dynamic for the Roses.
After that, there are a couple of other players that I believe you've always got to look at because they are playing so well in the league. This is something that Australia and New Zealand do really well and perhaps England haven't done so much of in the past.
Beth Ecuyer-Dale is playing extremely well at Saracens Mavericks and she's playing week in and week out at centre. She's absolutely smashing it and she's a very calming influence on them.
Beth opens them up in attack, hassles in defence and is a really subtle kind of centre. Beth controls proceedings for Mavs, but also brings out the best in others which is why I've been really impressed with her. Whether it's this time around or in the future, I think we've got to keep an eye on a player like that.
My final thought is around Sasha Corbin. Sasha is someone who has said that the door isn't closed on England and she's playing with freedom this season.
She's playing really smart netball; creative netball and we know that one of England's problems is cover for the wing attack position too. Sasha can play across both. I'm not saying that she's a full 60-minute centre but she's always extremely fit. She's strong, powerful, quick and she's making things happen for Saracens Mavericks.
England's head coach Jess Thirlby has got a lot of thinking to do and she's not going to have any further formal Test matches to run combinations in. Time is ticking too, as selection is now not far away.
In terms of England's squad overall, there are seven or eight individuals who have already cemented their places, meaning that the head coach's focus will be on the remaining four or five places.
She's going to be looking at a lot of statistics about what players are doing and also back at the Quad Series. She will be looking at certain combinations in the Superleague and what other players are doing around the world too.
Alongside this, Jess will be doing an awful lot of video analysis around England's players and the other teams to determine how you break down New Zealand in the group stage and Australia/Jamaica in the finals. She'll need to make sure that she's got the correct match-ups she needs to bring about the right results.
Serena was someone who was the first name on the team sheet which has ultimately left Jess Thirlby with some rethinking. However, England have never been in such a strong position in terms of choices and replacements.
Guthrie helped produce and guide a generation of netballers who believed they could beat anyone in the world, and although she'll never be replaced, she's left an incredible legacy for whomever steps in and steps up.
