She may be the only Tasmanian netballer to hit four figures for the third season running, but when it comes to praise, Ashlea Mawer prefers to pass.
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The prolific Northern Hawks goal-shooter was quick to spread the credit as her team celebrated her latest milestone achievement after Saturday's defeat of Cavaliers.
"I was a little bit embarrassed because I hate being the centre of attention," Mawer said.
"I'm proud of the achievement but obviously I cannot get the goals if my team does not turn the ball over and get it to me.
"I'm just doing my job."
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Sitting on 984 goals heading into the Silverdome derby, Mawer scored 63 of her team's 67 total to continue her dominance of State League statistics.
But despite leading the way in goals scored and goals per match, it is another yardstick that most interests the 23-year-old.
"I like to know my percentage because for me that's more important than how many I score.
"For the majority of the time I'm around 90 per cent and I've not gone below 80 this year."
The percentage stat does indeed tell the real story. Heading into the final round, Mawer was shooting at 87 per cent from her 17 games this season. No other player has an average over 84.
Launceston-born Mawer, who went to Mowbray Primary and Launceston Church Grammar schools, began playing in grade 3 when Danni Pickett's mum Lynne said her under-11 team was short.
Now studying to be a teacher at UTas, Mawer said she played with Spartans up until seniors, Clovers in midweek, had a couple of years with Devon and is in her fifth years at Hawks.
"I've really enjoyed Hawks from the start," she said. "I've always been really quiet and it helped me a lot with that. I've come out of my shell because everyone has been so supportive.
"It's a really good environment at the moment. Everyone is really positive around games and training which is really good heading into finals.
"It was an awesome feeling to win the league last year with us all being such great mates and we'd love to do it again.
"We're going into finals confident, but taking each quarter at a time."
Hawks co-coaches Ruth Tuohy and Kellie Woolnough echoed Mawer's comments about the value of her teammates.
"In Zoe Claridge, Steph Walker and Danni Pickett we have some of the best feeders in the State League so Ash would be the first to say she gets well fed," Woolnough said.
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Rob Shaw
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
