Titans Netball name 2023 playing squads

The Gold Coast Titans have named their sides for the 2023 Sapphire and Ruby series competitions, with some returning players joined by from faces for the upcoming season.

Titans Head Coach, former New Zealand Silver Fern Temepara Bailey, says she's thrilled with the quality of the teams as the club prepares for its second year in the state-wide competition.

"We have a really good response to trials," Bailey said.

"We progressed players who had played Sapphire and Ruby this year to the second trial and we ended up having 60 in the final trial which definitely caused headaches for myself and the selectors.

"Nobody was guaranteed a position in the team, so there was great competition.

"We've managed to keep a good number of the girls that we had last year, we've had a couple come through from the Ruby side and we've got a couple of new girls as well."

Bryah Gafa, the club's 2022 Sapphire Player of the Year returns in defence and is joined by fellow returning Titans Jess Milne and Emily Gilbert.

Jordan Ngarimu returns in the midcourt after missing the back half of the 2022 season while pregnant with her second child, while former Titans Ruby Series captain Peta Coles has been elevated to the Sapphire squad.

Keisha Grant (QUT) and Kourtnee Baird (Wildcats) add experience and excitement to the new-look mid-court.

The Titans will field a new shooting line-up in 2023, with former Ruby Series player Talitah Faifai elevated to the Sapphire team.  She'll be joined by Josephine Bingham (Wildcats) and Annie Lawrie (Thunder) who brings Suncorp Super Netball experience to the Gold Coast club.

The Titans were only announced as entering the Sapphire and Ruby Series in December last year, meaning Bailey and her squad had an abbreviated pre-season.

With a longer lead in to the season and the quality of players available, Bailey says expectations both externally and internally will be high in the coming year.

"I'm really excited and nervous at the same time as there is going to be more expectation on the team," she said.

"I'm really excited because last year we didn't get this opportunity to train before Christmas."

The Titans Ruby series team will feature returning Titans Lily Gray, Bayley d'Hotman de Villiers, Alorna Ngatokorua and Stella Atkinson, with Brooke Marchant also graduating to the side after being a training partner last year.

Among the new faces in 2023 will be former Australian volleyball player Jessyka Ngauamo who will return to netball with the Titans.