Team NI netball's Lisa Bowman relishing chance to contest third Commonwealth Games in Glasgow

The Team NI netball goal shooter had taken an eight-year break from the internation stage although was still playing at club level.

Bowman was part of the squad that achieved a seventh placed finish at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and played in the Gold Coast four years later.

“I was very doubtful that I was going to be selected into the 12,” Bowman said. “I even remember the phone call to this day when Sheonah (Forbes NI Netball coach) rang and I literally just burst into tears because just that overwhelming feeling of, ‘oh my word, I have made it’, kind of just took over.

“I kind of came back and I was under no illusion that it was going to be a hard ask of myself, but I have worked extremely hard, I was at no point certain that I was going.”

Bowman had never officially retired from international netball.

She explained: “No retirement, I just took a step back, didn’t know if I would ever come back, I suppose, at the international level, but yeah, I finally made that decision just before Christmas that I had something left in the tank.

“As much as I wasn't involved internationally playing, I was still playing at one of the highest club levels within NI, so it was tough coming back into the room, but I wasn't completely [out of] netball for those kind of eight years.

“I got a bad injury just a matter of a months prior to going to the World Cup in 2019, so it kind of took a long time, I think, even for me, kind of emotionally and mentally, to get back in to even playing club netball; injury and then life takes over as well.”

The decision to return to playing internationally was made easier with the likes of Caroline O’Hanlon and Fionnuala Toner still in the squad.

Bowman added: “There's still a few of us more experienced players in the room. It was definitely tough don't get me wrong, kind of coming back into that environment of them really high expectations, that intensity, but that was something I felt I was missing and that was why I wanted back on squad and wanted the opportunity to come back onto squad.”

During her eight-year break Bowman helped train the next generation of netball player.

“Within Netball NI, I worked for them for quite a number of years within the community sector, delivering grassroots netball and then I progressed into working with secondary schools and kind of the participation, but the performance side of netball within secondary schools as well.”

Team NI netball achieved their highest ever finish at the Commonwealth Games the last time the competition was staged in Glasgow.

“Started in Glasgow – we'll not use the word that it's going to finish in Glasgow either – we ended up playing Wales for seventh and eighth play-off [position] in 2014,” said Bowman.

“That was our first time as a country playing at a Commonwealth Games, so even expectations as to where we were going to kind of finish, there wasn't really much of an emphasis on it.

“We did extremely well in that game, so hopefully some of that luck will carry us through to this one.”

It will be up to Bowman to score the goals for the Warriors and she admits to thriving under the pressure.

“I love those moments there, the moments that I want the ball – and don't get me wrong, that doesn't come easy too, that comes with missing those all-important shots and those all-important moments as well – and kind of those feelings of deflation and that you didn't score that winning goal,” she said.

“But at the same time, it just kind of builds up that resilience and that confidence and that you can take into games and know that when you're in that moment, you can finish stuff off.”