THAT a positive pregnancy test would lead to an Aboriginal woman being sensationally selected into the Australian Diamonds squad says more about the fractured pathways that exist in netball than about merit-based selection. 

That’s the take many in netball have after Nyoongar woman Donnell Wallam rose from obscurity to Super Netball and into the Australian Diamonds squad ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Birmingham in England in a few short weeks. 

If Wallam, 28, earns final selection into the team she will be just the third Indigenous woman in the Australian Diamonds, behind legends Marcia Ella-Duncan, Diamond No. 96 with 18 caps from 1986- 1987, and Sharon Finnan- White, Diamond No.105 with 20 caps from 1990-1992 and 1999- 2000. 

The 194cm Wallam was recruited by the Queensland Firebirds when their primary shooter Romelda Aiken announced her pregnancy in the pre-season, which left the Firebirds a player short. 

Wallam, who dominated in the West…