After an illustrious basketball career that saw her represent Australia, captain the Bendigo Lady Braves and win the national championship with her home squad, she ditched the backboard and took up netball instead.

Now, following six premierships with Kangaroo Flat (including this year’s A-grade title), three club best-and-fairest awards and one league MVP trophy, 46-year-old Nina has again retired from competition and taken on a new challenge - guiding the next generation of stars.

She will use her vast experience and knowledge to coach the Bendigo Junior Braves under-14 Blue girls’ squad - a talented young team that includes her 11-year-old daughter Claudia.

 “I have gone through the squad system myself and know what it’s about and I just want to make sure the kids have fun and learn from it,” she says with enthusiasm. “There’s no point having them train for three sessions at that age: sometimes it’s about the quality of the practice, not the quantity.

“I’ve got a really good group of girls - we play domestic basketball in the under-16s and have got five tournaments and I’m looking forward to seeing the improvement from day one until I pass them on. I want it to be a good experience for them all.”

Nina has coached at domestic level and been involved off and on with squads for years, including as an assistant to her long-time team-mate and friend Andrea Walsh with the under-23 Young Lady Braves this year.

But with her high-level netball and basketball playing days now behind her, she is ready to devote more time to sharing her expertise.

“I don’t think a lot of people believe I have really given netball away - everyone says I’ve retired every year for the past 10 years and still come back... but it was time.

“I don’t think my body could keep it up much longer because it is such a physical game now.

“A few people have asked why I don’t drop back to A-reserve or B-grade for the enjoyment.

“But we have developed such a strong club that if I did, I might hold back a young player. A-Reserve should be about young players knocking on the door of A-grade, and even in B-grade I’d be taking someone else’s spot. 

“I have had a good time and I couldn’t have gone out a better way than that grand final win. 

“Besides, Claudia is busy now with her netball and basketball and I don’t want to miss out on anything with her.”

Nina’s swansong in helping the Roos beat Golden Square to claim the 2014 Bendigo Football Netball League A-grade title is one of her favourite netball memories.

She shared the court in the final quarter with her niece, teenage goaler Annie Spear, in a match her side was determined to win despite many challenges.

“We had a lot of things go wrong during the season – two pregnancies and centre Lauren Cowling rupturing her ACL – but we overcame them,” she says.

“Coach Janelle Hobbs put so much work into our team and club and it was so good to win after losing last year’s grand final by a goal. It can be hard to go in as the favourites, but we had this ‘refuse to lose’ motto and knew that unless we self-destructed, we deserved to win.”

Nina is passionate about developmental pathways for young athletes, particularly those like herself and her young charges who hail from regional areas.

After taking up basketball at four, she was a regular in Bendigo rep squads and Victorian junior state teams, as were her siblings Debbie, Fiona and Justin.

In 1985, at just 16, she played for Australia at the inaugural under-21 world championships in the US then spent the next two years touring with the national junior team and training at the Australian Institute of Sport.

“Looking back now I think, oh my god, I was just a country kid among what I thought was all these basketball stars. You don’t realise how good something is until you come away from it.”

But there were bouts of homesickness at being so far away from family and friends.

“I look at the Bendigo Spirit now and think what a luxury that would have been for me. 

“After the AIS, I played for Canberra Capitals but I really wanted to come home and would have if I could have. For Bendigo to have a national team is great and I wish that had happened in my day, so I could’ve played at the highest level from home.”

She is keen to see Bendigo secure a Victorian Netball League licence for similar reasons.

“Because of what I went through as a junior basketballer, struggling to live away from home, I think what a great thing it would be if the netballers could play at that level and live here, instead of having to travel to Melbourne or Ballarat two or three times a week,” she says.

“We have that now in basketball and there’s lots of options for those girls.

“And it helps local kids to be seen. I’m sure there are kids who get missed through the process because their parents can’t get them everywhere. The four of us all played basketball in Melbourne and we know we kept mum and dad pretty poor at times.”

Nina eventually returned to Bendigo after missing out on the 1988 Seoul Olympics team.

“In my last year in Canberra, there were three of us girls in a house together and we had no money - there was no money in it back then, maybe only one player might have been paid.

“It was a real uphill battle and I didn’t think I wanted to do it for another four years.”

She joined the local Lady Braves and played in the Continental Basketball League, now known as the SEABL, claiming the league MVP award in 1997 and earning All-Star honours in 1996 and ‘97.

“I retired for a little while and played netball for Kangaroo Flat, then went back to basketball in 2000 and we won the conference and national title. Then I could retire again happy.”

Her netball career in green and white was equally successful. A-grade premiers in 2001, 2004 and 2014 and three titles in B-grade and A-reserve between 2005 and 2010.

Nina had played netball in defence as a St Mary’s College high school student under well-known coach June Tully, but spent all her of senior days in the attacking goal circle and built a reputation for being strong and accurate.

“My accuracy close to the ring was high, but I always said so it should be when you are that close. I didn’t really shoot far away from the ring and have been lucky to always have goal attacks with good range - and if they missed I could get the rebounds. 

“People always asked how I kept playing for so long and I’d say, a) I’m six feet tall; b) I play in only one square and c) I have a fantastic team around me that compensated for my age.

“I enjoyed playing with mid- court specialist Karly Bingham, arguably one of the best feeders in the BFNL, and two of the most tenacious defenders in Alicia McGlashan and Simone Butler.”

Working alongside young sharpshooter Rachel McKenzie also proved a valuable partnership for Kangaroo Flat.

Most of her senior netball career at the Roos was under coaches Carol Bingham and Cath Wicks, while Spirit coach Bernie Harrower led her through her SEABL basketball days.

Nina is unsure how she will feel when next netball season rolls around without her, but there’s one thing the Bendigo Bank employee knows she will not miss.

“I am such a competitive person, so I hated pre-season because I’d always come last. Even though I was 45, I still wanted to finish at least in the middle.”

The age difference between Nina and her team-mates was often made light of - “young mid-courter Chelsea Sartori used to remind me I was older than her mother” - but she considers some of her younger counterparts over the years as her closest friends. 

Kangaroo Flat, she says, has become her “second family” because she’s been there so long. 

So what will she do with that competitive spirit now she’s hung up the netball tunic?

“Well, I always hold my breath when I watch Claudia play,” she says, “and I’m really looking forward to coaching my under-14 Blue basketball girls. 

“At the start of the year, running past the Kangaroo Flat lawn bowls club, I would tell the girls that’s probably where I’d be next year! 

“I know I will miss netball, but I am certain I will stay involved in both sports in some way.”