Laura Geitz
Quick Facts
Biography
Laura Geitz (born 4 November 1987) is a former Australian netball player and former captain of the Australian national team. Geitz was selected for the 2008 Australian national team, and has won a silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games , a Gold medal at the 2011 World Netball Championships and a Gold Medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games as captain. In domestic netball, Geitz plays for the Queensland Firebirds in the ANZ Championship. She previously captained the AIS Canberra Darters in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy.
Personal life
Geitz grew up in Allora, Queensland in the Darling Downs region. Geitz gave birth to a son on the 25 February 2017.
Career
In 2011, Geitz played a major role for the Queensland Firebirds in their undefeated ANZ Championship win. In addition, Geitz was part of the Diamonds squad for the 2011 Netball World Championships in Singapore. Although Geitz did not play as Goal Keeper in the first half against New Zealand (Susan Fuhrmann played Goal Keeper for the first half), her impact helped recover a six-goal deficit to force the match into overtime. This move proved to be successful as the Diamonds prevailed over their rivals in a one-goal victory.
Geitz was honoured with the Liz Ellis Diamonds Award in 2011. She has 32 Test Caps for Australia.
In 2013, she led the Australian team for the first time, winning the Constellation Cup against New Zealand. In 2014, Geitz was named captain of the Australian Netball Team to compete at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Under her captaincy the team defeated the New Zealand National Netball Team in the gold medal match, ending Australia's 12-year gold medal drought at the Commonwealth Games. In 2015, Geitz captained the Queensland Firebirds to the championship, winning over the New South Wales Swifts to secure the ANZ Championship for that season.
Geitz remained at the Firebirds through the first two seasons of the new Suncorp Super Netball league. She announced her retirement from international team duties in July 2018, having been capped 71 times for her country. Later that year, Geitz retired from domestic netball as well, ending her career with 169 domestic league caps and two Player of the Year awards (2011 and 2014) in the old ANZ Championship competition.