Geva Mentor CBE is a netball icon.
The legendary defender is one of the game's greatest goal keepers and returned to English shores last season after a glittering 15 seasons in Australia.
At 40, Mentor ranks as one of the oldest players in the Netball Super League but her natural talent and netball IQ has seen her perpetually turn back the clock both home and abroad, including a memorable run to the World Cup final with England two years ago.
A Super League champion with Team Bath in 2006 and 2007, Mentor moved Down Under to play in the domestic league in 2008, scoring a cluster of medals with Adelaide Thunderbirds, Melbourne Vixens and Sunshine Coast Lightning before signing with Rhinos for the 2024 season.
At international level, Mentor made her debut for the Vitality Roses in 2000 and represented England at six Netball World Cups and six Commonwealth Games.
She picked up 175 caps along the way, including a first-ever group stage victory over the Aussie Diamonds in the 2023 Netball World Cup.
Though England were beaten by Australia in the final, in what was Mentor's last-ever game with the national side, the 40-year-old voiced her pride at how far netball has come back home, with 5.6m viewers tuning in for the tournament in Cape Town.
She said: “The competitive beast in me was gutted that we couldn’t go all the way but I think in reflection what we were able to achieve, beating Australia in a round game, something we had never done before in a major tournament and setting ourselves up for an opportunity to win gold was huge,” she added.
“We are starting to get more coverage and the more we can ride on those coattails, the better for the sport.
“My mum picked me up at the airport and we stopped at one of the services just to grab a coffee and there were three or four people who came up to me and said they watched me and loved netball and I was so surprised.
“To be in somewhere completely unknown, not in kit, and for people to come up and ask for a photo and speak to you, that’s where you can see the change and the difference.”
Mentor has twice been voted the world's best netballer, in 2014 and 2017, and was awarded a CBE for services to netball in 2019.
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