Taylah Kiss took the road less travelled in a sport that usually prefers a well-trodden path.
She wouldn’t have it any other way.
Normally, conversations about netball development follow a script most senior players know by heart.
Club netball. Selection in an Under 16 or Under 18 State Titles squad. If things break your way, a coveted State tracksuit and a rip to the National Championships.
For anyone still playing at a senior level, the journey is usually strikingly familiar - a production line of pathways, programs and representative teams. Which is precisely why the route taken by Bond University Bull Sharks defender Taylah Kiss feels refreshingly different.
The proud Wiradjuri woman from the NSW Central Coast didn’t just step off the beaten path - she went looking for one almost nobody else thought to take.
The Bond faithful may recognise the name.
Kiss has already been a part of the Bond program - back in 2019 - the very first year elite Queensland sides were vying for Sapphire and Ruby-level trophies.
It was only a brief stay, though.
Kiss - whose older sister, Jordan, is a Suncorp Super Netball umpire - had found opportunity in a surprising place.
I mean, who even knew netball was played in the United States?
Well, Taylah Kiss, for one.
In Year 12, she arranged to sit her final exams in Florida so she could qualify for the U.S. Open Netball Championships.
It all worked out beautifully. Now Kiss regularly floats between Australia and America, delighting in her role as an ambassador for the game.
“I’m still the only import in the team,” she says.
“So, my role there is to kind of help develop the sport. To bring it up through the grassroots.”
The American foray didn’t interrupt Kiss’s academic ambitions either.
She qualified for pre-medicine in Sydney, and an exchange opportunity saw her travel to Georgia, where she could combine netball with study.
“Netball has such a hard pathway, but I feel like there’s so many different avenues and different directions that everyone can go through.
“I think it’s pretty cool that I get to travel the world and do something I love.”
Now Kiss has returned to high-level Queensland netball at Bond and couldn’t be happier to be back in Bull Sharks colours.
Few topics seem to excite Kiss more than Bond’s High Performance Training Centre in Robina.
Home to recovery pools, physiotherapy services and strength and conditioning coaches, the facility has become a cornerstone of Bond’s elite netball program.
“I honestly haven’t seen anything like it,” she says.
“Even in comparison to America, the facility is amazing.
“No other teams in the league have what we have.”
Bond’s world-class facilities may have caught her attention, but it’s the collaborative, encouraging and empowering culture that brought her back.
“I left the elite sports program here for a few years, but seeing the success of the club now and what they’ve really done with it attracted me back to it,” she said.
“They have set such high standards, and they really support you to try to meet those standards.”
Kiss is particularly animated when discussing the people behind the scenes and the culture they’ve built.
She’s quick to shine a light on Bond University Head of Netball, Kim Boland.
“She is like a mum to us off the court, but you know not to mess with her,” she says.
“If you need anything as a person or as a player, she’ll be there for you.
“She’s very passionate, but I think that’s why the club is so successful. She really does care about us players and as people.”
That support becomes even more important when balancing university study alongside elite competition.
“Honestly, without the support of both, I don’t think it’s possible to do both,” she says.
“I’m very grateful.”
Taylah Kiss is lining up for the Canberra Darters in the Suncorp Super Netball Reserves competition this week.