Georgia Heffernan is a New Zealand netball international. Since

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, she has played for Southern Steel. Her mother, Annette Heffernan, her aunt, Maxine Blomquist, her sister,

Kate Heffernan Kate Alexandra Heffernan (born 7 October 1999) is a New Zealand netball international and former cricketer. She represented the New Zealand national netball team at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2023 Netball World Cup. She captained Ne ...

and a cousin, Shirley Langrope, are all

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

netball internationals. Her mother and aunt were the first set of sisters to play international netball for New Zealand. At the 2024 Netball Nations Cup, herself and her sister became the third set. However, the Heffernan sisters are the first sisters to actually play in the same team at the same time. As well as playing netball together for New Zealand, the Heffernan sisters have played together in several teams, including Southern Steel and the Otago Sparks women's cricket team.

Early life, family and education

Georgia is the daughter of Noel and Annette Heffernan. Her mother, her aunt, Maxine Blomquist, her sister,

and a cousin, Shirley Langrope, are all New Zealand netball internationals. Her father played rugby union for Canterbury Country. The Heffernan family live on their sheep and beef farm, near

Tapanui Tapanui is a small town in West Otago in New Zealand's South Island, close to the boundary with Southland, New Zealand, Southland region. It is a forestry town at the foot of the Blue Mountains, New Zealand, Blue Mountains and the Pomahaka Rive ...

, West Otago. The Heffernan sisters attended Tapanui's Blue Mountain College and

St Hilda's Collegiate School Saint Hilda's Collegiate School is a secondary school for girls in Dunedin, New Zealand. History Founded as an Anglican school in 1896 by the first bishop of Dunedin, Bishop Samuel Nevill and staffed by the Sisters of the Church. The sisters ...

. Georgia attended

Otago Polytechnic Otago Polytechnic is a public Education in New Zealand#Tertiary education, New Zealand tertiary education institute, centred in Dunedin with additional campuses in Cromwell, New Zealand, Cromwell and Auckland. Otago Polytechnic provides career-f ...

, where she studied veterinary nursing.

Playing career

St Hilda's

In 2016 and 2017, the Heffernan sisters were members of the

team that won back-to-back

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

secondary school netball titles. 2016 was the first time St Hilda's had reached the final five stage and final of the tournament. In the 2016 final, Georgia scored 25 from 35 as St Hilda's defeated Marlborough Girls' College 38–37. She scored the winner in the final seconds. In 2016 the St Hilda's team assistant coach was their mother, Annette Heffernan.

Netball South

Between 2017 and 2019, the Heffernan sisters played for Netball South in the National Netball League. Ahead of the

season, while playing for Netball South, they were also named as training partners for Southern Steel. After recovering from an ACL injury, Georgia was also included in the 2021 squad. The team was now renamed Southern Blast.

Southern Steel

Since

, Georgia has played for Southern Steel. She made her senior debut for Steel in the 2018 Super Club tournament. During the 2019 ANZ Premiership season she made five appearances. She also played in the 2019 Super Club tournament. On 28 June 2020, during a

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match against Northern Stars she suffered an ACL injury after landing awkwardly. Georgia subsequently missed the rest of the 2020 season and the whole of the

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

season as she recovered. Since

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, she has been a regular member of the Steel team. Her sister,

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Steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

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New Zealand

Heffernan played for

in the

2022 Fast5 Netball World Series The 2022 Fast5 Netball World Series was the 10th Fast5 Netball World Series. New Zealand hosted Australia, England, Jamaica, South Africa and Uganda in a series, played in November 2022, at Christchurch's Wolfbrook Arena. The series also featur ...

. On 5 November 2022 she made her Fast5 debut against

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. In July 2022 she played for a Mixed Invitational team in the Cadbury Netball Series. During the series she played against the senior New Zealand team, featuring her sister

. It was the first time Georgia and Kate had played against each other. On 20 January 2024, Heffernan made her senior debut for New Zealand against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

during the 2024 Netball Nations Cup. She was originally only selected as training partner for the series. However, after impressing in training,

Noeline Taurua Dame Noeline Taurua (born 26 March 1968) is a New Zealand international netball coach and former representative player. She is currently head coach of the New Zealand national netball team, the Silver Ferns. Early life Taurua was born in Papa ...

promoted her to the starting seven. With her sister, Kate, already an established member of the team, the Heffernan sisters now became the third set of sisters to play international netball for New Zealand. The first set were their mother and aunt, Annette Heffernan and Maxine Blomquist. However, the Heffernan sisters are the first sisters to actually play in the same team at the same time.

Cricket

The Heffernan sisters are also notable

women's cricket Women's cricket is the team sport of cricket when played by woman, women. Its Laws of cricket, rules are almost identical to those in the game played by men, the main change being the use of a smaller cricket ball, ball. Women's cricket is b ...

players. Georgia has represented Otago at under-15, under-16 and under-21 levels. Georgia and

also won national titles representing

. In 2018, Georgia played for

Otago Sparks The Otago Sparks is the women's cricket representative team for the New Zealand region of Otago and the surrounding area. They play their home games at University Oval, Dunedin. They compete in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield one-day competition ...

, once again alongside Kate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heffernan, Georgia 1999 births Living people New Zealand netball players New Zealand international netball players New Zealand international Fast5 players New Zealand women cricketers Otago Sparks cricketers Southern Steel players ANZ Premiership players National Netball League (New Zealand) players Sportspeople from Invercargill

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

People educated at St Hilda's Collegiate School Otago Polytechnic alumni New Zealand twins 21st-century New Zealand sportswomen