Jo Harten's legendary 19-year career has ended in fairytale fashion as the Giants concluded their 2025 Super Netball campaign by steamrolling the Melbourne Mavericks 74-59 at a full-voiced Ken Rosewall Arena.
Four-time club MVP Harten racked up 33 goals, including seven two-pointers, and eight assists on Saturday as the Giants (5-9) finished the season strongly with four wins from their last six games to leapfrog the Mavericks (4-10) into sixth place.
Harten, 36, announced her retirement during the week, drawing the curtain on a glittering career that featured 117 Tests for England - including Commonwealth Games gold - 202 national league games and an MBE for services to netball.
The Giants rode an unstoppable wave of emotion to the finish line, swamping Melbourne 25-14 in the fourth quarter.
With only seconds remaining, Sophie Dwyer gave up a wide-open super-shot to spot up Harten, who, fittingly, finished the job with a long-range bomb on the fulltime bell before being swarmed by teammates and teary coach Julie Fitzgerald.
"For my sins, I'm just a born winner and I was getting a bit touchy at three-quarter time when we were neck and neck in a really competitive game," Harten said, holding baby daughter Eddie, after receiving a bouquet of flowers from Netball NSW.
"It was an awesome game to finish on.
"I was once one of those little girls dreaming of making it to the big time.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be here today."
The Giants started sluggishly, falling behind 8-3, before tidying up their penalty count and closing the gap to 18-17 at quarter-time.
Molly Jovic was prolific through the middle for the Mavs but with Erin O'Brien subbing on and subduing Sasha Glasgow, the Giants were able to square the scores at halftime.
Hope White was injected at wing attack for the hosts and did a fine job on Melbourne captain Amy Parmenter, while some late cough-ups from the Mavericks' frontcourt saw the Giants finish the quarter on a 6-0 run, turning a deficit into a 49-45 advantage. From that point, the Giants - and the great Harten - were simply unstoppable.
