Hayley Mulheron has 100 caps for Scotland making her the most capped active Scottish Thistles player. Having previously played in the Netball Superleague for Team Northumbria, she has spent that past year playing in Australian Suncorp Super Netball league.

I only signed for Sirens a few weeks ago but there’s been no time for me to relax and bed in slowly.

I’ve been thrown right in at the deep end with our heavy schedule which, once again, saw us playing two games in three days last weekend.

As has happened a few times already this season, we’ve experienced the highs and lows of professional netball within just a few days of each other.

Last Saturday, we had a great – and very convincing – win against Team Northumbria but two days later we lost out to the league leaders, Loughborough Lightening.

After a strong start against Loughborough, a few unforced errors crept into our play so we’ve been working really hard on eliminating those mistakes in training this week as we build up to playing Hertfordshire Mavericks, away, tomorrow.

It’s been a hectic few weeks for me since I returned to Scotland from Australia where I’ve spent the past year or so playing my netball.

Last year, I decided that I wanted to test myself against the very best netball players in the world and, as I was about to turn 30, I knew that if I didn’t go to Australia then, I probably never would.

So I’ve spent the past year playing for New South Wales Waratahs but a few months ago, my mum, unfortunately, fell ill and so I returned to Scotland to help her recover and when Sirens heard I was coming home, they asked if I’d sign for the rest of the season.

Coincidentally, the timing has been really good in a netball sense because it’s the off-season in Australia just now and Sirens have had a few injury issues and so needed a couple of new players.

My employer and team in Australia have been fantastic in allowing me to come back home and play for Sirens until the end of the season so it’s been a real privilege to step in and I’ve slotted into the team really smoothly which has been fantastic.

I first represented Scotland 16 years ago and I have to admit that I can’t quite believe the progress that’s been made in the sport in that time.

The Australian league is, in my opinion, the best in the world but the standard of the Superleague really isn’t far behind and so for Scotland to have a team able to compete at this level is pretty unbelievable and it’s been absolutely brilliant to be a part of netball becoming the most dominant female sport in this country.