Funmi Fadoju's bag of tricks keeps getting bigger

It is hard to know what is more impressive, Funmi Fadoju’s defensive abilities or her poker face. 

As her Grand Final winner and Player of the Final medals clinked together, the 22-year-old delivered a master bluff on where her future lay. 

With an ‘I don’t know myself’ here, and a ‘I’m just living in the moment’ there, Fadoju was convincing. 

It seems she had practice, having already recorded her ‘gotcha’ goodbye video for London Pulse, which actually revealed she was staying in the Netball Super League for another season. 

The signing window was only a day old, and it had had maybe its biggest announcement already. 

Fadoju is not just any player, she is a 5ft9 goal defender with a vertical leap that kangaroos would kill for. 

Her Player of the Final recognition came after another stellar performance that has become routine across the Vitality Rose’s five years in the NSL. 

She delivered eight gains and deflections apiece with three intercepts and two rebounds to boot. 

Even then, Fadoju turned the praise back onto her teammates, with the closeness of Pulse’s 10 shining through as they won their first-ever Grand Final. 

“I knew it was going to be hard, I am not going to lie I am very exhausted,” she said. “But I have an amazing unit behind me. 

“I have Hali [Adio], I have Zara [Everitt], I have Darcie [Everitt] and I just know that if they are believing in me and I am believing in them then I can do anything.  

“It allows me to shut down the attack, to go out for ball. For me, it was just focusing on what I knew I can do, focusing on just shutting down my player and looking for ways that I can win ball and help my teammates.” 

Fadoju’s first year with Pulse coincided with Sam Bird joining the franchise as head coach and she now also serves as CEO. 

With her influence right across the pathway and the first team, Bird has been able to build a team packed full of homegrown talent. 

Fadoju is joined in the long-standing line-up by two of her closest friends off the court, Olivia Tchine and Halimat Adio. 

While Adio stands alongside Fadoju in the defensive circle, Tchine operates down the other end of the court, converting the turnovers her friends make into goals. 

Fadoju added: “Winning the Grand Final with your best friends is an amazing thing because I just know after the match, we just looked at each other like ‘guys, we did that’.  

“We’ve been through so much together, we know so much about each other, and we bring almost that love from being best friends onto the court as well. 

“I can trust Hali, I know she has my back, I know I can trust Liv, I know she is going to do a job. 

“I can hear Liv shouting to me from off the court and she is telling me the things I am doing well but also the things I can do better.  

“That is what we are like with each other and it just helps push us on and off the court.” 

The ‘triple trouble’ sisterhood seems set to carry on for at least another season, with Bird already having eyes on a defence of their title. 

At the heart of any challenge to become the fifth team to defend an NSL title, must be the culture developed under Bird. 

It has been instilled across Pulse’s campaign that returned three trophies and just two regular season losses. 

“We have had the same belief and culture since the start of the season, in every single session we have said ‘we have got this guys, we can win this no matter what happens’,” Fadoju explained. 

“Even when we were down by let’s say 10 goals, we were able to bring it back.  

“The major semi-final we were down by quite a bit, but we still brought it back and I think that is the belief and the fire in this team that we will do anything for each other.  

“As long as we are together, we can conquer.”

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