Kristiana Manu'a (born 3 September 1995) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

-born

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

player in the ANZ Premiership, playing for the

Central Pulse Central Pulse are a New Zealand netball team based in Wellington. Between 2008 and 2016, they played in the ANZ Championship. Since 2017 they have represented Netball Central in the ANZ Premiership. Netball Central is the governing body that r ...

. Manu'a was born in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, the capital city of

, though moved with family to Liverpool, New South Wales as a baby. She began her netball career back in New Zealand in 2015, playing for the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic under head coach Julie Fitzgerald. Despite representing Australia at underage level, Manu'a was approached by

Netball New Zealand Netball New Zealand is the national body which oversees, promotes and manages netball in New Zealand, including the Silver Ferns. In 2019, 137,713 players were registered with Netball New Zealand, the governing body for organised netball in the co ...

officials to represent the

New Zealand national team New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

during her time at the Magic. She remained an Australian player however and made her debut for the

Australian Diamonds The Australia national netball team, also known as the Australian Diamonds, represent Netball Australia in international netball tournaments such as the INF Netball World Cup, the Commonwealth Games, the Constellation Cup, the Netball Quad Se ...

in the 2016 Quad Series. Manu'a was set to play for Giants Netball in the inaugural season of Super Netball in 2017, though missed the entire season due to a ruptured Achilles tendon sustained in the off-season. She eventually made her debut for the Giants in the 2018 season before finishing with the club in 2021. In 2022 Manu'a returned back to New Zealand, joining the Central Pulse in the ANZ Premiership. Her strong form saw her named in the 2022-2023 Silver Ferns development squad. Manu'a took the court in the 2022 Cadbury Series, playing for the NZ A team across the series which included a Mixed Side for the first time alongside the NZ Men's team. She also was a member of the 2022

Fast5 Fast5 (originally called Fastnet) is a variation of netball featuring shortened games and goals worth multiple points. The new format was announced by the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) (now the International Netball Feder ...

Ferns team that won a Bronze medal.

References

External links

Netball Australia profile

Suncorp Super Netball profile

Interview with Giants Netball player Kristiana Manu'a
– YouTube 1995 births Australian netball players Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic players Giants Netball players Living people Suncorp Super Netball players Netball players from New South Wales Australia international netball players New Zealand netball players Netball New South Wales Blues players New South Wales state netball league players Central Pulse players New Zealand international Fast5 players ANZ Premiership players {{Netball-stub