3 weeks ago
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SUNSHINE GIRL Romelda Aiken-George has announced her retirement ahead of the Suncorp Super Netball League Grand Final.
The six-foot, five-inch-tall 36-year-old left Jamaica to play professional netball in Australia in 2008 and has represented the Queensland Firebirds (2008-2022), New South Wales Swifts (2023), and the Adelaide Thunderbirds (2024-2025).
She brings to a close a remarkable career, holding the record for the most games played across both the Suncorp Super Netball and former ANZ Championship after 245 appearances, four premiership titles and three league Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards.
“Right now, I am feeling somewhat sad, but the body is just like, ‘Let’s take a time out’, but I think my mind is saying, ‘Yeah, we can do it’,” Aiken-George said in an Adelaide Thunderbirds interview.
She credited former Netball Jamaica President Marva Bernard with giving her the support and confidence to pursue her career abroad.
“[Going to Australia] was daunting, I was very scared,” she said.
“My sister and I got a scholarship to go to America to play basketball, and my sister went over very early. I was meant to go in the second semester of her starting there and I didn’t go, and then I got the opportunity to come to Australia. At the time, my mum said: ‘She’s too young to leave. She’s got to stay here for another year of school.’”
“I remember when Bernard — she had to convince my mum. [Bernard] gave my mum so much confidence in going to another country, because she was so scared to allow me to go. My calling was to stay with netball.”
Aiken-George, who was the first of many Sunshine Girls to join the Australian league, has helped to pave the way for others, including Shamera Sterling-Humphrey and Latanya Wilson.
She said playing with her fellow Sunshine Girls in the Australian league has been a great experience.
“To have spent the past two years at the Thunderbirds, it’s been amazing to play with this group, and I’m so grateful that my career crossed paths with Shamera and Latanya in particular,” she said.
“To have played in this competition for so long before any other Jamaicans joined, it’s extra special for me to have had these years playing with them and living with them too.”
The Thunderbirds head coach, Tania Obst, hailed the Jamaican for her contribution to the team.
“Romelda has brought great insights and experience to our team along with her infectious personality,” Obst said.
“Her MVP performance in the 2024 grand final was sensational, being such a strong and imposing presence within the goal circle. We have loved having Gianna (Aiken-George’s daughter) around our team, too — to watch her grow over the past two years has been delightful.”
Aiken-George is the longest-playing Sunshine girl, making her debut in 2005, boasting over 70 Test caps.
She has also helped the Sunshine Girls to two Netball World Championships third-place finishes in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2007 and Cape Town, South Africa, in 2023; two Commonwealth Games bronze-medal finishes, in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2014 and Gold Coast, Australia, in 2018. She also helped the team to a silver medal in the World Netball Fastnet Series in Manchester, England, in 2009.
Aiken-George still owns the record for most goals (63) in a grand final.
English (US) ·