Liz Ellis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Liz Ellis (born 17 January, 1973) is an Australian netball player. She is the captain and the best-known player on the current Australian team, not only for her long representative career but for her off-court media work. Ellis plays goalkeeper for both the Australian team and her club team, the highly successful Sydney Swifts, thus usually matching up against the opposing team's best shooter. Ellis is entrenched in the history of the sport and is widely acknowledged throughout the sporting world as one of its greats. The former lawyer has achieved just about all there is to achieve in the netball world.

Joining the senior Australian squad in 1992, she has been a fixture since, as part of the world championship winning sides in 1995 and 1999, as well as the Commonwealth Games gold medal team (a competition as strong as the World Championship, as all the strongest netball teams are part of the Commonwealth) in 1998 and 2002. Made captain of the Sydney Swifts in 2000, she became national captain in 2004.

In October 1999 she won her second World Championships with the Australian Team, after taking the final rebound in the grand final against New Zealand. That started the ball rolling back down court for Australia to shoot the winning goal in the final seconds of the game.

In the Test against the Silver Ferns played in Auckland on October 29, 2005, Ellis suffered a serious knee injury, which required surgery and rehabilitation lasting several months. As a result she missed netball's next major international series, the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. However, she has since resumed playing for the Sydney Swifts in the 2006 Commonwealth Bank Trophy season.

She was also a member of the Australian Team that won the first Gold Medal for netball at the Kuala Lumpur 1998 Commonwealth Games and the consecutive medal in Manchester in 2002, this time as Vice-Captain. She has won Australian netball’s Most Valued Player Award, the most prized individual award three times, in 1996, 1998 and 2002 and was named the Australian Team’s Vice-Captain in 2000. Despite all of this Liz did have one major aim, a burning desire to win a Commonwealth Bank Trophy title with the Sydney TAB Swifts and in 2001 she achieved her dream as Captain. Then in 2004 and again in 2006 she achieved this goal and led the Sydney TAB Swifts to premiership wins.

Liz was named Captain of the Australian Netball Team in February 2004 and Co-Captain in July 2006, alongside Sharelle McMahon, for the Holden Netball Test Series against New Zealand, her first international after returning from knee surgery. She was again named captain in September 2006.

Ellis displayed her champion qualities in 2006, by rebounding from a career-threatening knee reconstruction to record one of her best ever netball seasons. Possibly the greatest GK to have ever played the game, Ellis returned to her sensational best to dominate the domestic and international netball scenes, and prove why she has long been considered the world's best defender. Possibly the only goal keeper in the world to have an impact on New Zealand shooting senstation Irene Van Dyk, Ellis's return to the Australian team resulted in Australia winning three of their final four matches against New Zealand in 2006, with Ellis restricting Van Dyk to measly goal tallies compared to her usual phenomenal averages.

Ellis capped off a successful 2006 by winning the Australian netballer of the year award for a record fourth time - after victories in 1996, 1998, and 2002, her 2006 victory was perhaps the sweetest.

[edit] Career

Ellis is a fully-qualified solicitor, but has given legal work up to concentrate on business and media work. She has been a regular panellist on a number of sports panel shows, where her gently self-deprecating humor has been popular. For 5 years she presented a weekly sports segment on the ABC's national youth radio network, Triple J. She has also appeared several times on The Glass House. Her business activities include running junior coaching clinics amongst a number of other activities and endorsements.

Ellis lives in Sydney with her husband Matthew Stocks.