SOUTH Belfast sisters Emma and Michelle Magee are poised to go head-to-head in front of the Sky Sports cameras when Surrey Storm host Leeds Rhinos in netball’s British SuperLeague on Saturday (6pm).
The pair could even find themselves marking each other as older sibling Emma has established herself as first choice goal attack for Storm and Michelle’s primary position is goal defence.
However, the younger Magee has been featuring in the unfamiliar role of wing defence for Rhinos so far at the start of the new season so it may not be a direct clash on court but even the duo lining out on opposing sides would have real novelty value.
English international Sasha and Kadeen Corbin now play together for Saracens Mavericks, so the Magees are the only sibling rivals at present across the 11 franchises in the northern hemisphere’s flagship semi-professional league.
The pair are more used to being on the same side in sport, having played netball together for Belfast club Westside and Northern Ireland at age group level before teaming up for the Warriors on the world stage, and they’ve also shared success on the gaelic football field.
Emma Magee in action for Surrey Storm against SuperLeague champions Loughborough Lightning on Monday night
Like their NI Warriors captain and Armagh ace Caroline O’Hanlon from Bessbrook, the multi-talented Magees are dual players who have lined out for Antrim and also helped their club Carryduff clinch a first ever Down Senior Championship success in 2017.
With her full-time teaching job in England alongside Storm duties, Emma has opted out of inter-county football for now, but Michelle is following her hero O’Hanlon in trying to juggle SuperLeague netball and National League commitments at present.
That can make for an incredible busy schedule and Magee junior, who just turned 22 a few weeks ago, had hoped to tackle three matches in 72 hours the weekend before last, with fixtures for Rhinos either side of Antrim’s derby battle with Derry.
She was meant to be in Glasgow with Rhinos on the Friday night before being back in Belfast for the Saffrons’ first game of the season on Sunday afternoon ahead of an historic occasion at teatime on Monday.
With all matches last season being held at central venues due to the pandemic, 2021 SuperLeague newcomers Rhinos had a very long wait to host their first home match, with Team Bath being the Valentine’s Day visitors to Sheffield.
A niggle picked up in training midweek meant discretion had to be the better part of valour regarding the Antrim match, but it was still a memorable few days as Magee got her first SuperLeague start in a great 45-43 win against Sirens.
Rising star Michelle had featured half a dozen times off the bench at goal defence during last season’s campaign, mainly relieving England’s Vicki Oyesola, and been an unusued sub on numerous other occasions but this was her first time in the starting seven.
It could have been a daunting assignment considering Magee, who has played all her international netball in the back circle, was selected out of position at wing defence for a rusty Rhinos side whose scheduled opening game had fallen foul of Covid-19.
They were away to a Sirens side with two matches under their belt and the backing of a very vocal crowd in Glasgow’s Emirates Arena but last season’s surprise package semi-finalists fought hard and held on for a valiant victory.
Magee came on at half-time against Bath, though Rhinos were outscored in every quarter in the course of a 67-47 defeat in Sky’s Monday teatime televised game before bouncing back by beating Celtic Dragons 57-52 in Cardiff last Saturday.
On an afternoon when 6’5” South Africa shooter Sigi Burger made her Rhinos debut off the bench, Magee played the last quarter before flying home for Antrim’s National League game away to Fermanagh which the Saffrons lost 2-11 to 2-8 in atrocious conditions.
Rising star Michelle Magee got her first start for Leeds Rhinos in this month's opening British SuperLeague game 
Last August, the imposing Magee had made a dramatic impact off the bench in Antrim’s All Ireland Junior Championship semi-final against Carlow, scoring 1-5 from play including the winning goal, after playing two netball friendlies for NI in Glasgow the previous two days.
Magee just arrived back in Leeds after midnight after a five-hour coach journey before flying home next morning but she made her presence felt in Irvinestown, including scoring a first half goal, in spite of not having kicked a ball since Croke Park last September.
Michelle was watched by dad Jim, who was Antrim assistant manager when a Saffrons side featuring Emma won the Ulster Junior Championship final against Fermanagh three days before Northern Ireland left for the 2019 World Cup at which she made such an impact.
Having arrived in Liverpool as an unknown rookie, Emma Magee, who graduated with first-clash honours the week of the opening game, played the second most match minutes of the entire squad and finished as leading scorer for the Warriors in spite of playing goal attack.
Sister Michelle was playing in her second major tournament having already featured at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games while still a schoolgirl, the youngest member of Elaine Rice’s squad by some seven and a half years.
The pair picked up their first professional contracts at the same time, albeit with different franchises, for the 2021 SuperLeague season and are two of only five NI internationals involved in the current campaign.
Emma was selected to start up front for Surrey Storm in their opening game of last season but had the misfortune of tearing ankle ligaments just under four minutes into her SuperLeague debut, which kept her sidelined for a couple of months.
The 23-year-old, who was doing an 11-hour round trip commute three times a week from the prestigious Sedbergh School in Cumbria where she was teaching, regained her starting spot and did well but suffered another brief setback in the form of a freak abdominal injury.
Sisters Emma (left) and Michelle Magee just before the 2019 World Cup where they were part of the NI Warriors squad 
Storm struggled last season, finishing second bottom in the table, and began by losing to Severn Stars this time before an improved performance in going down 76-68 in a high-scoring game away to O’Hanlon’s Manchester Thunder, the 2019 champions.
One of the world’s best shooters, Uganda captain Peace Proscovia, scored 62 goals from 63 attempts but, along with captain Yasmin Parsons and player-coach Mikki Austin, Magee ensured Storm’s star signing had a constant supply of ball.
Even though Storm have three notable alternatives for her position, Magee got the nod to start a third match out of three last Friday night away to Team Bath when she had a great game in spite of being marked by the world-class Layla Guscoth.
After a shared first period, Bath took a 34-30 half-time lead and were six ahead when three goals in a row from Magee set the tone for a stunning third quarter in which Storm outscored their hosts 17-9 on their way to a 62-58 victory.
Magee’s confidence, flair and determination were all to the fore and, on a night when she played the full hour, the 24-year-old got through a huge amount of work around the court and took on an increased volume of shots in a match where Storm converted 62 out of 64.
Emma had to come off after rolling her ankle in the defeat to reigning champions Loughborough Lightning in Storm’s first home match of the season on Monday night but has resumed training and should be fit to face Rhinos.
Having been signed initially by her then Northern Ireland coach Dan Ryan, Michelle Magee is clearly impressing his successor as Rhinos supremo, fellow Aussie Tracey Robinson, who has been giving her game-time at wing defence.
Kiwi Tuaine Keenan and Oyesola are the established back circle pairing with off-season signing from Thunder, Rebekah Airey, appearing to be regarded primarily as cover for them while Magee and Emily Hollingworth fight for the wing defence bib.
Emma Magee’s ankle injury scuppered the prospect of any sibling battle in the first Storm-Rhinos match last season and, although it looked like Michelle would be brought on to mark her in the closing stages of the return game, Ryan didn’t make the change in the end.
Mum Andi, who has coached the girls at Westside and works for Netball NI, was there that evening but she and Jim will settle for watching proudly from their south Belfast home this time as their incredible daughters do battle live on Sky Netball’s YouTube channel.
