Melbourne Phoenix

Melbourne Phoenix were an Australian netball team that represented Netball Victoria in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy. Between 1997 and 2007, together with Melbourne Kestrels, they were one of two teams to represent Netball Victoria in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy era. Phoenix were the inaugural CBT champions and went on to become the competition's most successful team, winning five premierships. In 2008, when the Commonwealth Bank Trophy was replaced by the ANZ Championship, Phoenix and Kestrels merged to form Melbourne Vixens.^[1][2][3]

Melbourne Phoenix

Founded	1997
Disbanded	2007
Based in	Melbourne
Regions	Victoria, Australia
Home venue	State Netball and Hockey Centre Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre Waverley Netball Centre
Premierships	5 (1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005)
League	Commonwealth Bank Trophy
Uniform

Grand finals

Season	Winners	Score	Runners up	Venue
1997	Melbourne Phoenix	58–48	Adelaide Thunderbirds	The Glasshouse
2000 [4]	Melbourne Phoenix	52–51	Adelaide Thunderbirds	The Glasshouse
2002 [5]	Melbourne Phoenix	49–44	Adelaide Thunderbirds	Vodafone Arena
2003 [6]	Melbourne Phoenix	47–44	Sydney Swifts	Sydney Super Dome
2004 [7][8]	Sydney Swifts	52–51	Melbourne Phoenix	Sydney Super Dome
2005 [9][10][11]	Melbourne Phoenix	61–44	Sydney Swifts	Vodafone Arena
2007 [12][13][14][15]	Sydney Swifts	45–37	Melbourne Phoenix	Acer Arena

Sources:^{[16][17][18][19][20][21]}

Home venues

In 1997 and 1998, Phoenix played their home games at the Waverley Netball Centre. In 1999 they switched to the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.^[22] In later seasons they played at the State Netball and Hockey Centre.^[8][10][23]

Notable former players

Internationals

 Australia

Natalie Avellino Bianca Chatfield Natasha Chokljat Julie Corletto Renae Hallinan

Janine Ilitch Cynna Kydd Simone McKinnis Sharelle McMahon

Eloise Southby-Halbish Chelsey Tregear Ingrid Dick Wendy Jones

 England

• Abby Sargent

 Scotland

• Fiona Themann

CBT MVP

Season	Player
2000 [4]	Sharelle McMahon
2003	Sharelle McMahon
2005 [10]	Sharelle McMahon
2007 [12]	Sharelle McMahon

CBT Best New Talent

Season	Player
2004 [8]	Julie Prendergast

Coaches

Head coaches

Coach	Years
Norma Plummer[24][25]	1996–1998
Joyce Brown[26][27]	1999–2002
Lisa Alexander[28][29]	2002–2004
Julie Hoornweg [10][30][31]	2005–2007

Assistant coaches

Coach	Years
Roselee Jencke[4]	2000

Sponsorship

Sponsors	Seasons
Cenovis[22]	c. 1997–1999
First National Real Estate [12][32][33]	c. 2006–2007

Premierships

• Commonwealth Bank Trophy
  • Winners: 1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005: 5
  • Runners up: 2004, 2007: 2