NETBALL
By LIAM DURKIN
OF all the things Ramayer Gourley has achieved in netball, the greatest may well be for something they don’t hand out trophies for.
Those watching the Moe A Grade playing-coach would have no reason to believe anything abnormal was happening.
After all, Gourley is one of the Gippsland League’s premier defenders, with a resume that reads: grand final best on court twice, four selections in the league team of the year, and experience representing Vic Fury in the Australian Netball League.
While this is impressive enough, it pales in significance considering what she has had to overcome in the last few years just to get back onto the court.
Having progressed to ANL level in 2017, Gourley looked set to progress further, before being struck down with what turned out to be, among other things, autoimmune arthritis.
“I first really started feeling it in my hips and shoulders in my first season at Fury, so it came to a head at a really bad time because I felt I had just taken that step in my netball career,” she said.
“I had one season with Fury which is a big load, you play back-to-back games Saturday and Sunday for however many weeks then finals. We made the grand final that year, it was during that time, toward the end of the 2017 season my body was pretty sore.
“Predominantly it started from my groin, I was actually diagnosed with osteitis pubis, which wasn’t a wrong diagnosis, it was just a side effect of the arthritis.”
The 27-year-old said she had no real reason to believe such a disease would beset her.
“My pop had mild psoriasis on my mother’s side and my dad also has very mild psoriasis, it would flare up every couple of years, but he would easily get rid of it,” she said.
“When I finally got diagnosed I was going to Olympic Park and I met up with the doctor and she thought it was definitely osteitis pubis but she thought something else was going on as well.”
With the pain becoming excruciating, Gourley was forced to reshuffle her entire life.
“Those couple of months where I couldn’t get out of bed, it wasn’t every day, but some days the pain was so bad I physically could not get out of bed,” she said.
“There was a period of time I thought not just netball, but functioning as a normal adult on my own was going to be impossible.
“I couldn’t even drive. It was strange because it was mostly my left shoulder so I couldn’t change gears.”
During this time, Gourley tried to make the most of a difficult situation, using her artistic talents to help her recovery.
“I actually did a big piece at uni about my arthritis, that was my last studio work that I did,” she explained.
“When I was originally diagnosed I had all these preconceptions about what arthritis looked like, my thought was it went to my hands, so I did a series of hand drawings.
“Deep down I really wanted to get back playing, but when I wasn’t able to walk I was thinking ‘let’s take it step by step’, let’s get to a point where you can go through a day maybe at 80 per cent pain free.
“Once I got to the point where I didn’t feel pain all the time I went for a walk, then a run, slowly chipping away at what my body could handle and I got to a point where I could actually play again.”
Slowly but surely, Gourley was able to make a return to the court, and came back with a blast in 2019, making another Gippsland League Team of the Year.
Describing arthritis as a ‘shooting pain’, Gourley now takes injections twice fortnightly in her stomach to help stay on top of the disease – something she says “doesn’t tickle” but is necessary nonetheless.
The defender has been able to return to virtually full fitness this season, and said she was loving her time on the court.
“My biggest thing this year, it was actually Round 1 for VNL, I just had the best time and I came off and it was so much fun,” she said.
“I realised it was probably the first time in five or six years where I wasn’t in pain, I was able to just play the game I loved and it didn’t hurt.”
Gourley is staying heavily involved in the game, coaching not only Moe, but at Lowanna College and said she was grateful for all the support received.
“My family, Declan (partner Declan Keilty) especially have carried me through. When I was going through that phase I didn’t know why I was in this pain, that was the worst part, during those years I needed that support,” she said.
Higher things in netball might not be totally out of the question for Gourley, who has made the Collingwood training squad for the Super League.
Reflecting on her journey was especially poignant given last Friday was World Autoimmune Arthritis Day.
Even if it was in a small way, Gourley hoped the old saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ shone through.
“What I struggled with so much while this was happening was I looked like an able-bodied person, but I wasn’t,” she said.
“You never know what people are going through and that is why you need to be kind.
“For people that might be going through anything remotely similar to me, be patient, do what you can, you are still going to have a future, it might look differently to what you originally planned but you can still make the most out of it in other aspects.”
