The Melbourne Mavericks are excited to announce that their inaugural Mavs Reserves captain, Sacha McDonald, will be elevated to the Mavs list of contracted 10 players, completing the team’s list for the 2026 Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) season.
Despite this being her first full SSN contract, McDonald already has significant experience within the world’s top netball League. McDonald signed with the Melbourne Vixens as a Training Partner in 2019, after captaining the Victorian Under-19 team at the National Netball Championships in the same year, and also being a member of the Premiership-winning Victorian Fury in the Australian Netball League. Through her display of immense leadership, the then 19-year-old earned the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) Netball Coaches Award.
In 2020, McDonald returned to the Vixens as a Training Partner, ending up relocating to the Queensland hub with the team for 13 weeks, as the team went on their Premiership run. McDonald – along with the Vixens’ other Training Partners – were awarded their honorary club numbers for their sacrifices and commitment to the club during this extraordinary time.
In 2021, McDonald again returned to the Vixens as a Training Partner, but after another pandemic-disrupted year she took her talent to the international court in 2022, signing with the London Pulse in the Netball Super League (NSL), tallying 226 goals at 86% accuracy across a two-year stint.
Returning back to home-soil thinking her elite netball career was likely behind her, McDonald continued to showcase her shooting dominance, re-joining the Casey Demons in the Victorian Netball League (VNL). It was in this domain that she expanded her role as a traditional GA to also fill the position of WA, solidifying herself as a double-threat and making her an invaluable player on any court.
After taking leap-of-faith in trying out for the inaugural Mavs Reserves team in 2025, McDonald was not only selected in the squad of 12, but was quickly voted the team’s first-ever captain, leading the team all the way to the Super Netball Reserves Grand Final in their first season in the league. Fittingly, McDonald was also named the Reserves’ Player of the Year at the Mavs annual Awards Night.
Edging ever-closer to her official SSN debut, McDonald was named in the Mavs’ game day squad in Round 3 in the 2025 season, with her versatility and exciting talent proving her fit to fill the role of Temporary Replacement Player for Sasha Glasgow, who was out with a calf niggle. The Mavs are excited at the prospect of potentially providing McDonald the opportunity to make her official SSN debut, where she will no doubt cement herself as an impenetrable force in both the midcourt and shooting circle.
Speaking on her elevation into the Mavs squad, McDonald expressed her excitement.
“It feels so surreal to be able to join the Mavs as a fully-contracted member of the squad for 2026,” McDonald said. “I’ve said before that I thought elite netball might have been behind me not all that long ago – and I was ok with that – but I have thoroughly enjoyed training and learning with this group over the last year. It’s pretty impressive what this club and this playing group have managed to build in just two seasons, so I’m excited to be remaining a member of the Mavs family in 2026 and give it all I’ve got.”
Mavericks General Manager, Shae Bolton-Brown, said it was exciting to secure McDonald’s signature and complete the Mavs roster as the team now looks firmly ahead to the 2026 season.
“We are thrilled to have Sacha sign on to remain with us at the Mavs in 2026,” Bolton-Brown said. “Her netball journey to date is the definition of what it means to be Maverick, which is probably why she was such a good fit within our wider squad both on and off the court last year. The way she’s kept working at her game, and developed it to the point where she’s an asset both in the shooting circle and in the midcourt is to her absolute credit, and so we can’t wait to see how that versatility unfolds on the SSN court next year.”
On the signing period in general, Bolton-Brown said she was really pleased with how the Mavs’ 2026 squad had come together.
“I think there’s no denying that on paper, we have a really strong squad looking ahead to next season,” Bolton-Brown continued. “Although there looks to have been quite a few changes to our list of contracted 10 players, we are proud and pleased to have promoted so many players who are already members of the Mavs family to a contracted 10 position, and that our program has helped them progress to this point in achieving their netball goals.”
McDonald’s elevation to the SSN squad completes Mavs roster for the 2026 SSN season. She joins Reilley Batcheldor, Kim Brown, Jessie Grenvold, Tara Hinchliffe, Shimona Jok, Molly Jovic, Uneeq Palavi, Amy Parmenter and Jamie-Lee Price.
[With the current Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) broadcast and digital rights deal between Netball Australia and the Foxtel Group expiring at the end of next year, the end of the 2026 SSN season is the longest any club can contract a player for this point in time.]
