Taking the road less travelled gives Silver Fern the ultimate reward

When Karin Burger was playing premier one netball in the Hutt Valley in 2014, Phoenix Karaka was making her Silver Ferns' debut.

Burger and Karaka, both 29, are now Silver Ferns' team-mates, competing for spots in the defensive end.

That gives you an idea of the levels Burger had to climb when she moved to New Zealand as an 18-year-old.

Having recovered from a foot fracture, the now 33 Test defender booked her spot in the Silver Ferns' squad for the Quad Series in Cape Town starting tomorrow.

They will meet South Africa, Australia and England in their last international series before July's World Cup in Cape Town.

When Burger left South Africa she was a somebody in netball circles, when she arrived in New Zealand no one knew who she was.

Burger was on a trajectory that would have seen her with a very good chance of one day representing her country of birth.

"The December before I moved over I was in the national 21s camp and made it into the final group. Before I found out whether I made the team or not I told them that I would be moving over to New Zealand.

"The move was more just for a change and when you're 18 you want something exciting and new and that's what I tried doing," Burger said.

Jo Paora was Karin Burger's first coach when she arrived in New Zealand.

Paora, a stalwart of Netball Hutt Valley was the Netball Development Officer at the time.

"Karin was going to be living with her aunt and uncle in the Hutt Valley, she wanted to join a netball club so I was the first port of call they made.

"Were we lucky or what?" Paora chuckles.

"My first impression when I met her was 'wow look at this tall person that we desperately need in Hutt Valley'."

Paora was immediately impressed with Burger's attitude.

"In terms of what I had been used to with 18-year-olds you know, normally cocky and pushing themselves forward but Karin was the total opposite.

"She told me how she had played age group in South Africa and she'd come over to New Zealand because she had relations here and I guess she wanted a change."

In 2012 Burger started off in Naenae Collegians United's second team, which Paora was the coach of.

"She had a lot to learn and we had players already in the Premier 1 top team that the coach classified as being better at the time.

"After the second year I said to our top team's coach 'no you need to take her because she's too valuable'.

"And in terms of what she was being shown and what she was learning, she was eating it all up and spitting it out on the court and she didn't deserve to be sitting in the second team another year."

Burger originally planned to spend a year in New Zealand but one year turned into 11, and she hasn't looked back.

"I thought there was lots of room for improvement in my netball and the only place I was able to do that was to stay where I was," Burger said.

Life outside of netball got better for Burger too as she started making more friends and connections in the community.

Burger is very close with her family and Paora said she did feel homesick for a while but having her aunt, uncle and cousins was a saving grace.

"Her parents came over while she was here, I met them and the brother ...we all had a big BBQ here, a whole lot of the netball people, most of our club was there to support her," Paora said.

"The other saving grace I think was she was doing so well and being recognised. Just when she needed it she started progressing through the ranks."

Burger played in the Hutt Valley for five seasons before she got a job in Wellington and moved into the city and it made sense to start playing there.

"By the time she went into Wellington they knew how good she was, she had made age group reps and was well known after that.

"It was a matter of them taking her under their wing and making sure she was looked after and that's what happened."

The improvement in her game was exponential but Paora said getting noticed took longer for Burger.

"She was quiet and she didn't push herself in terms of making sure that we knew she was there."

As Paora got to know Burger she wondered if that might be to her detriment.

"Because of her nature, that possibly could have held her back, she could have probably been noticed a couple of years earlier in terms of Silver Ferns' trials if she was a little bit more assertive in pushing herself forward.

"Being aggressive on the court came naturally. But when it came to putting herself out there and saying 'look at me' it just wasn't in her nature."

Eventually Burger made the Pulse side in the ANZ Premiership, and got her Silver Ferns debut in 2018, following in the footsteps of Irene van Dyk and Leana de Bruin, who also relocated from South Africa.

Burger became a regular in the Silver Ferns but a foot injury forced her out of contention for last year's Commonwealth Games.

She used some of the down time post-surgery last year to visit her family in South Africa, the first time she'd seen them in over two and a half years.

Paora sent Burger a text when she was over there.

"I reminded her that there are people who want the same spot that she wants and I said 'when you're out there you need to say it's my spot and you need to show them why it's your spot'.

"But that's just the elderly Māori lady giving the advice but at the end of the day she knows what job she has to do, she knows."

As a registered player, Burger still plays the odd club game for Naenae Collegians United.

Paora said Burger gives her time to the club whenever she can.

"She takes sessions for our top team and sessions for our rep teams as well. I think she displays a lot of gratitude for those early days. She doesn't need to because everybody else starts off somewhere.

"We loved Karin and we loved her personality and she deserves where she is."

A different life

Burger doesn't know if she would still be playing netball if she had stayed in South Africa. So while she took the tougher journey, she got the ultimate reward.

"I'm quite big on having security in my life and that's why I'm grateful to be in the position where I am able to make a living off playing netball," Burger said.

"I look at a lot of South African players who don't have that privilege and they still have to make a living outside of netball.

"The sacrifices they have to make to be able to play to be honest if I think of my own personality I don't know if I would have continued playing, which is a big call but I just see all the struggles that they go through and I take my hat off to them."

Burger hoped with South Africa hosting the World Cup for the first time, it would boost support to the sport over there.

"They've got amazing talent, they always have and it's just about being given that opportunity and with more support they'll be able to put out even better performances. When they are playing anybody else I'm a really big supporter of them."

Netball does not get as much media coverage in South Africa as it does in New Zealand but Burger did notice a new level of recognition when she went back last year.

"Usually I go home and chill and just be me but there was quite a lot of interest and support, which was an amazing feeling and a shock to the system.

"That was my first time going home after playing consistently in the black dress. Going back especially to my home town where there's people that knew me, it was quite different, to see that amount of interest."

Burger grew up in the small town of Vredendal about 3 hours from Cape Town, where she spoke her native Afrikaans.

It was only when she moved to New Zealand she started speaking English on a regular basis.

She juggled netball and athletics when she was at high school but ventured more towards netball as she preferred a team environment.

Burger grew up on the local netball courts and her mum was a netballer.

"A lot of her friends talk about how she was highly pregnant when she was still playing with me and that's probably why they believe I've got the netball genes.

"It's a very big netball community so everybody knows each other and it was a big part of my life growing up."

During her visit last year her old high school had a presentation for her to reveal her name on their honours board.

Playing in a World Cup in her country of birth would be a dream come true.

"When it was first announced that it would be in South Africa I got some instant messages saying it would be awesome to come watch if I was in that team.

"So adding that little bit of pressure but as my family always tell me they believe I do better under pressure and it's a good thing when I am so I'm really gunning for it and hoping to pull through."

Aside from her mother, who saw her play at the 2019 World Cup, no one else in her family back in South Africa have seen her in the black dress.

They will finally get that chance tomorrow.

"I get messages after they watch my games via livestreaming but I'm excited to show them what I do in real time."

The Quad Series begins tomorrow with the Silver Ferns taking on South Africa at 2.30am.