With the opening weekend of the 2025 Vitality Netball Nations Cup just days away, our writer Rosina Butcher spoke to Vitality Roses and Manchester Thunder player Amy Carter about the tournament.
The Vitality Roses will play at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena on February 1 and 2 as part of the 2025 Vitality Netball Nations Cup. The international netball series will feature games against Uganda, and South Africa, with the final to be played at London’s Copper Box Arena.
Amy Carter, a centre wing defender for the Roses, burst onto the scene for Manchester Thunder in 2018 and went on to help her side win the league in her second season in the Netball Super League.
The 26-year-old has 20 caps for the Vitality Roses as she looks to help her national side continue their history-making form in which they have beaten world number one Australia in Australia for only the third time ever, and won the Taini Jamison Trophy against then world number two New Zealand.
Hi Amy! How are you feeling about next weekend?
Amy: I’m super excited for next weekend. We’re currently in Loughborough doing a training camp, then we’ll have the weekend off. From Monday we’ll be at a training camp in Nottingham and then we’ll have the matches on the 1st and 2nd of February.
We’re really excited to experience these other nations. I think international netball is at an exciting place at the moment where the top 10 is starting to become a more even playing field and the top’s getting a bit dicier. These nations, especially the African nations, are bringing a new style of netball and it’s going to be interesting playing against that.
Have you come up against any of these African nations (South Africa, Malawi, Uganda) before?
Amy: I played at the 2020 Nations Cup and came up against South Africa in that, and against Uganda in 2024. I haven’t played against Malawi yet, but I’ve played against a few of their players in the Super League and played with their shooter Joyce Mvula at Manchester Thunder, so I’ve had some experience with these nations.
You say they are bringing a new style of netball to the game, what are they like to play against?
Amy: Uganda and Malawi in particular have a different style of netball from teams like New Zealand and Australia. They play a possession game, they retain the ball and you need a different style of defence to play against that. Malawi have an early-shooter exit, they’re very rangey and reactive, you’ve got to adjust to that style and put out a different set of tactics.
It sounds like it’ll be a really exciting watch, I can’t wait. Do you feel that playing in the Vitality Cup has been a key part of your career?
Amy: I’ve got about 20 caps for England Netball now, I did injure my ACL right after my debut so I had about a year and a half out and that was a bit tricky. It’s a great competition {the Nations Cup}, you get to play so many different teams in back-to-back games and then you get to play a final, whereas other competitions we do are more like series-based where you play the same team multiple times. You have that environment of a big crowd and the need to get that result on the day.
Are you excited to play in front of the Nottingham crowd? Have you played at the Motorpoint Arena much before?
Amy: I love the Motorpoint Arena! It’s a really great crowd there, it’s one of the loudest we’ve played in the UK. I think it’s because it wraps around the whole court, it’s the ambience and the atmosphere it creates there, you can really hear that on the court. It’s a great environment.
What are the Vitality Roses’s aims for 2025, what else is on the cards for the rest of the year?
Amy: We’ve been building. We’ve been playing lots of different teams; New Zealand, Australia, Uganda, South Africa and then Jamaica in December. Summer 2026 is the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, so these two years are very much just building a base and developing this team to work towards the Games, and then the World Cup in 2027.
What are your aims for 2025 with Manchester Thunder?
Amy: Things are really exciting with Manchester Thunder. We narrowly lost out on the final last season and had a rivalry with Loughborough, so we want to build on that. We’ve retained quite a lot of players and we want to go for that win. We’ve got some competitions coming up and the season is starting in March. Our first game is against Loughborough on the 16th of March in Manchester
What was your sporting highlight of 2024?
Amy: Beating Australia on their home soil. We hadn’t done that for quite a few years so it was really special, it was in Sydney with a crowd of 8,000. On the flip side, whilst we didn’t get the result we wanted, the Jamaica Series was really impressive. They’ve got a crowd like no other, there was one woman on the bassline with pots and pans, it’s a different environment to play in.
What’s your favourite crowd to play in front of?
Amy: I’m from Manchester so I’d probably say Manchester, but I am a bit biased.
Tickets for the return of the Vitality Netball Nations Cup are still available and can be bought on the England Netball website. You can also follow the Vitality Roses and their progress on their social media.
Featured Image Credit: Morgan Harlow