When the NSW Swifts dealt their cross-town rivals a one-goal defeat to end the 2024 Super Netball season with a win, it looked like a weight had been lifted from the players’ shoulders.

And in fact, it had — the weight of a challenging season unsettled by injury and off-court issues.

While the whole story behind the Swifts’ turbulent year remains largely untold, co-captain Paige Hadley understands the toll the situation took on the team.

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“It was really disappointing,” Hadley told Wide World of Sports.

“Coming off a one-goal loss in the 2023 grand final, we had high hopes of redemption, and then you’re playing out the last game for a wooden spoon finish — it was really disheartening. It’s not what the Swifts are known for.”

Heading into 2024, the Swifts looked like they had overcome their devastating extra time defeat the year prior, winning the pre-season Suncorp Team Girls Cup to again position themselves as a front-runner for the premiership.

After a solid first half of the season, the Swifts sat in the competition’s top four. But at that point, the wheels spectacularly came off.

And to many observers, the dramatic collapse comes back to a probe into a Swifts player’s alleged transphobia.

Before the 2024 season, Netball Australia announced it would investigate a social media post by two-time premiership goaler Samantha Wallace-Joseph.

The Instagram post, shared to Wallace-Joseph’s account, offended members of the transgender community and caused outrage considering the Swifts’ participation in the competition’s dedicated Pride game.

Several days later, the Swifts and Wallace-Joseph issued a joint statement in which the Trinidad and Tobago import backtracked and apologised for her post.

At the time, the Swifts declared that the views expressed in Wallace-Joseph’s post were not shared by the club.

Having spent two seasons on the sideline after rupturing her ACL in round one of the 2022 season, Wallace-Joseph signed on with the Swifts and was set to make her return to the court in 2024.

But the three-time club MVP saw less game time than in her previous campaigns since her arrival at the Swifts in 2017 and was eventually dropped after the team’s horror loss to the Thunderbirds in round seven’s grand final rematch.

The team was understood to be frustrated after being kept to just 33 goals.

While it was initially thought that Wallace-Joseph was managing her knee, coach Briony Akle explained after the side’s round-eight clash that the change was not for injury reasons but tactical ones.

This sent the netball rumour mill into overdrive, with theories of behavioural concerns doing the rounds.

Things came to a head in June when Wallace-Joseph and the Swifts mutually parted ways.

In a club statement, the Swifts said the fractured relationship concerned “behaviour within the team environment”.

Making matters worse for the team, during this period, co-captain Maddy Proud was also sidelined with a knee injury.

The loss to the Thunderbirds initiated a seven-game losing streak, which saw the Swifts tumble out of the finals and battle to avoid the wooden spoon.

“Internal issues happened with certain members of the playing group, and it was unfortunate how they played out. What unfolded wasn’t what we wanted,” Hadley, who is working with Netball Australia to support future superstars thanks to the Woolworths NetSetGo program, said.

“As a group, we were absolutely shattered by what happened last season.

“I always say it’s ironic. I couldn’t even write a book about what unfolded because you couldn’t even plan what happened.

“As a leader of the club, it kind of put it in perspective that things can be going well, but you just never know what’s around the corner. So, it’s really about embracing the moment.

“If we could do things differently, we probably would have, but we’ve taken a lot out of it as a group.

“We’re very much looking forward, not backwards.”

Asked what the club would do differently if it could have its time again, Hadley admitted that the emotional toll on both staff and players could have been handled better.

While the club has never used the incident as an excuse for its performance last season, inner turmoil clearly had an impact.

“When things played out, it was a really emotional time, and to ask your players to get out there and play week in, week out in the best competition in the world and be at their best was tough,” Hadley says.

“Out in the media, you saw different storylines and things unfolding and different players being accused of different things. So I think, as a club, we potentially should have, from the start, said exactly what had happened, so there wasn’t any ifs, buts, whats, whose, this and thats — it was clear what had happened.

“I wish we didn’t go to the group with everything unfolding because everyone had to deal with it in their own way.

“I never wish it upon anyone for that to happen, I’d never wish it upon any team. But you learn from it and it makes you stronger. I honestly feel like it’s made us stronger as a group having had that year and we’ll push on in 2025.”

As a nondisclosure agreement was signed regarding Wallace-Joseph’s departure, Hadley is restricted in what she can set straight in her own words.

“The group that was there knows exactly what happened, and I think the consequence of behavioural issues was the correct one,” she said.

“It was dealt with; we parted ways with that player, you put it to bed. We played out the season and now there is no looking back.

“I can’t say exactly what unfolded and what the actual incident that occurred in the club environment was. That’s obviously for our club; they disclose that information and I respect that completely.

“It’s also about having respect for the [temporary replacement] players that came in [for the season].”

Despite how things transpired, Hadley hopes all involved can put the event behind them.

“People make decisions and things happen,” Hadley assured.

“I wish Sammy all the best. She was with our club for a long time.

“People make decisions based on circumstances, and unfortunately, it wasn’t the right one, but I wish her all the best with her season and whatever she chooses to do in the future.

“It’s sad to think that she probably would have had a life here and probably would have played 100 games for the club. But we all make decisions in life that, unfortunately, sometimes we wish we didn’t make but we have.”

The NSW Swifts will feature in this year’s Suncorp Team Girls Cup beginning Friday, March 14.