Karla Pretorius at Peace with Perfect Farewell and Ready for the Coaching Chapter
Karla Pretorius has closed one of South African netball’s greatest playing careers exactly the way she told gsport she hoped to, back in national colours, a champion at home, and completely at peace with everything she has given the game.
Speaking to gsport Live following her retirement, the Spar Proteas great reflected on a farewell season that read like a script. Before the Telkom Netball League campaign, she was candid in a gsport interview about wanting a national recall.
She earned it, bowing out with 125 international caps after a final appearance at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, having first captained the unbeaten Free State Crinums to a fifth Telkom Netball League crown in her final domestic season.
“I walk away from this chapter with a lot of gratefulness and contentment on everything that I’ve done. I’m really proud of this journey and very grateful. And I’m really excited to go on to the next.”
Former Spar Protea and International Netball Professional, Karla Pretorius
The next chapter is already decided. Coaching has run alongside her playing life from the beginning, and she intends to pursue it across both ends of the game.
“Coaching was always part of this journey and I’m just going to continue with that going forward,” she said. “I’m really excited to tap into the high performance environment a bit more, but also keeping that element of development, which is probably more in the school system area, but also really identifying talent that really needs opportunities to go forward.”
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Few are better placed to bridge those worlds. Pretorius starred domestically, anchored the national defence on the world stage, was named Player of the Tournament at the 2019 Netball World Cup, and made history as the first South African to play in Australia’s Super Netball, winning back-to-back titles with the Sunshine Coast Lightning in 2017 and 2018.
Her approach, she believes, made the difference, and it is the first lesson she wants to pass on. “A big focus was really on how I go about doing my things, what is in my control, and that’s to try hard to be a great teammate for my fellow teammates and to contribute.”
Asked what South African netball has, what it needs and what it can realistically achieve, Pretorius is clear-eyed. “I think very importantly we know we have the talent in South Africa. If you look at our school system, it’s really healthy,” she said. The gap, she argues, opens after school, where the pathway favours players in university structures and loses too many others, and where senior and elite players lack the financial security to sustain long careers.
She wants the pace of change to quicken. “There’s a lot of talk around a professional league, but how can we get to that point within the next two years instead of the next five years?” she asked, warning that netball must remain sustainable and competitive as other women’s codes gather momentum.
Her most personal advocacy concerns players who become mothers. “Often players need to stop the moment they want to start a family,” she said. Pretorius stepped away in 2022 to start her own family and returned to the very top, but she worries about those who follow.
“In that moment, I did get a lot of support from Netball South Africa, but what happened after that? Where’s the players that came after me that wanted to start a family and return?”
She has no ambition of becoming an agent, but mentorship calls strongly. “I can play a major role in mentoring up and coming players,” she said, pointing to lessons on personal brand, working with sponsors, and the professional standards she absorbed abroad.
Pretorius also speaks with rare authority on how young athletes look after themselves. Armed with a Master of Science in Dietetics, she warns that the biggest nutritional trap facing young sportswomen is eating too little.
“I think the biggest thing that’s out there is under-fuelling. So you feel like you need to be light to play in order to compete better. But that’s not the case,” she said, urging a balanced plate of carbohydrates, proteins, healthy fats, fruit and vegetables. “A simple approach is when you eat, make sure you include all the food groups.”
As she reflects on it all, gratitude keeps rising to the surface. “I know I could have never done this journey without great support, my family, my friends, the support staff that contributed towards my performance on court, great coaches,” she said.
“It’s never been just my journey. It was everybody that came with me on this journey and I’ll forever be grateful for that.”
And in gsport’s 20th anniversary year, she offered an unprompted tribute that will resonate across the Newsroom. “It’s platforms like gsport that have really told the story, got the story out to everybody that is involved in netball and outside netball, giving them the opportunity to hear stories,” she said. “So thanks for the work you are doing, gsport, and really telling the stories of women in sport and doing it really well.”
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Pretorius signs off at peace. “I’m really excited and really at peace with where I’m at and looking forward to what’s next,” she said.
South African netball will be hoping the next chapter is every bit as golden as the last.
Main Photo Caption: Karla Pretorius captained the Free State Crinums to an unbeaten 2026 Telkom Netball League campaign and a fifth title in her farewell domestic season, before closing a 125-cap international career at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games. All Photos: Netball South Africa
Photo 2 Caption: Pretorius blazed a trail as the first South African in Super Netball, winning back-to-back Sunshine Coast Lightning premierships in 2017 and 2018.
Photo 3 Caption: The netball icon wore the Spar Proteas dress with distinction for more than a decade, crowned Player of the Tournament at the 2019 Netball World Cup.
Crédito: Link de origem