Sophie Fawns played with Helen Housby for four seasons at the NSW Swifts in Australia, but has joined AO Manchester Thunder for the 2026 Netball Super League season.
When Sophie Fawns told Helen Housby she was joining AO Manchester Thunder, Housby burst into tears – not out of sadness at what Housby would lose in a teammate, but what Fawns would gain in experience.
Housby and Fawns are now treading opposite paths, with the England shooter making the move from AO Thunder to NSW Swifts in Australia’s Suncorp Super Netball almost a decade ago, while Fawns has swapped Sydney for Manchester to play in the Netball Super League. As one of the most exciting attacking talents in netball, signing Fawns was a major coup for AO Manchester Thunder, but it is a valuable opportunity for the 22-year-old too.
“She was ecstatic for me when I first told her I was going,” Fawns said. “I remember telling her at our gala dinner and she started crying. She told me I was going to have the best time and that the Thunder girls are the best kind of girls and the culture that they have at the club and that Karen [Greig, head coach] has created is second to none.
“It shows that Helen hasn’t been in that environment for 10 years, but she still talks about Karen and what that team is like. It made it extra special knowing what it means to play for Thunder and knowing that Thunder has been around quite some time and there are still only 86 players who have represented the club and the history and the legacy that it holds.”
Housby helped AO Thunder to their second NSL title in 2014 before heading to Australia in 2017, where she has played for the Swifts ever since. Fawns made her debut for the Sydney club at just 19 years old and has represented Australia at Fast5 level.
The shooter has been able to learn from one of the best in the world in Housby having gone from fan to friend. She added: “Helen played a massive part in terms of my career at Swifts. I never really had the aspirations of playing professional netball until I saw the Swifts play in a pre-season game.
“Helen being a goal attack and being that girl was someone I really looked up to and made me want to play professional netball. So, to be able to play with her and when I first came into the environment, I was so starstruck and she gave me a hug in my first training session when I was 16.
“But by the time I signed my first contract she said, you know we are actually friends and teammates now, so you can stop being a fan girl about me, and that was the best because it broke down the barrier that we could be silly and goofy with each other because we were teammates. Being able to be able to play with Helen Housby and what she has to offer to the game, I learnt so much of what you can do and it was a privilege to play with her as one of the best in the world.”
Fawns is now hoping to earn AO Thunder a fifth Netball Super League title, with the team currently sitting second in the table, and taking on league leaders Loughborough Lightning on Saturday at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham. It is a potential Soft & Gentle Grand Final match-up, which has extra meaning for the AO Manchester Thunder team with the Grand Final coming to their city for the first time ever, when it will be held at Co-op Live on 20 June.
Fawns has been partnering Eleanor Cardwell in the shooting circle in Manchester, with Cardwell another player who has played out in Australia. The pair came up against each other in a Grand Final Down Under, with Fawns using that as motivation for this season.
“The first year she was over, she beat us in the Grand Final in extra time, so when we first met I made a joke that ‘I am going to not try and hold it against you but you did take that premiership away from me’, she said. “She is the best and the smarts she has and how she shows and demonstrates that leadership on court is something I am really grateful to be playing with.
“Now that we are on the same team I have told her, ‘I won’t hold it against you, but we do have to win one this year’.”
The road to the Soft & Gentle Grand Final is underway, get your tickets here.
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