 Liz Ellis, Celebrity Grand Prix Day, 11 March 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Elizabeth Margaret Ellis | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1973-01-17)17 January 1973 (age 52) Windsor, New South Wales, Australia | |||||||||||||||||||
| Occupations |
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| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) | |||||||||||||||||||
Spouse | Matthew Stocks | |||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||
| School | St Andrews College (Marayong) | |||||||||||||||||||
| University | Macquarie University | |||||||||||||||||||
| Netball career | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Updated on 2015-06-24 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Elizabeth Margaret Ellis,AO (born 17 January 1973) is a retired Australiannetball player and television presenter who was a member of the national netball team from 1992 until 2007 andcaptain for the last four of those years. She is the most capped international player for Australian netball.[1]
Ellis was born inWindsor, New South Wales, on 17 January 1973.[2] After attending Holy Family High School and finishing the last two years of secondary education at John Paul II Senior High School (now known asSt Andrew's College), Ellis attended theAustralian Institute of Sport on a netball scholarship. She also completed alaw degree atMacquarie University while she worked her way up the ranks of Australian netball.[3]
After attending the AIS in 1991–1992, Ellis made her debut for the Australian Netball Team in July 1993 against Wales. It was the 1995 World Championships in Birmingham where she stamped her mark on the international netball scene with a sterling performance in the grand final against South Africa. She went on to be a mainstay of the Australian Netball Team, participating in the 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007 World Championships and the 1998, 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games. She was named Vice-Captain of the team in 2000 and Captain in 2004 and broke the record for the highest number of tests played for Australia in 2005. She was named Australian Netball's Most Valued Player on four occasions – 1996, 1998, 2002 and 2006.[4][5]
Ellis became the captain of theSydney Swifts in 2000. She was the captain for their team in 2001, 2004, 2006 and 2007Commonwealth Bank Trophy premierships. She played her entire domestic career for the Swifts and holds the record for the most games played in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy (173). In October 2005, Ellis suffered a career-threatening knee injury in a match against New Zealand in Auckland. She defied the critics by making a full recovery from a full knee reconstruction and producing some of the best netball of her career in the two years that followed. Ellis announced her retirement from netball on 19 November 2007, two days after leading Australia to a World Championship victory over New Zealand.[6][7][5]
Since her retirement, Ellis has been a netball commentator, working initially forFox Sports andNetwork Ten during their coverage of theANZ Championship and Australian Diamonds test matches. She moved to theNine Network when it picked up the rights to theSuper Netball league, and became a regular panellist on the network's weeklySports Sunday program.[8]
In 2023, Ellis appeared as a contestant in theninth season of the Australian edition ofI'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, which she won.[9] She also began appearing regularly onNetwork 10'sThe Project as a panelist in 2023.[10][11]
In October 2023, Network 10 announced at their 2024 upfronts that Ellis was set to host a revival of the sports entertainment competition showGladiators Australia in 2024, alongsideBeau Ryan.[12][13] The show officially premiered on 15 January 2024.[14]
Ellis met former businessman Matthew Stocks in 1992. They became engaged in 2000 and married in 2006.[15]
On 31 March 2011, Ellis announced that she was pregnant.[16] On 28 September 2011, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter, at Sydney'sRoyal Prince Alfred Hospital.
On 21 October 2015, Ellis announced on "The Project" that after several rounds of IVF and three miscarriages, she was pregnant with her second child. A son was born 4 April 2016.[17]
Ellis wrote a book in 2018 titled "If at First You Don't Conceive", detailing her experiences with her troubles having children.[citation needed]
In August 2022 she appeared in Season 13 ofWho Do You Think You Are?, revealing connections toCondobolin, and an Irish convict ancestor.[18]
In May 2024, Ellis was appointed Chair of theNetball Australia Board.[19]
Ellis was inducted to theVictorian Honour Roll of Women in 2006.[20]
In the2018 Australia Day Honours, Ellis became an Officer of theOrder of Australia (AO) for "distinguished service to netball as an elite player and coach, through support and advocacy for young women, as a contributor to the broadcast and print media industries, and to the community".[21] In recognition of her outstanding career, since 2008 the highest individual accolade awarded to an Australian netball athlete has been the annualLiz Ellis Diamond.
In 2019, she was inducted into Hall of Fame atAustralian Women's Health Sport Awards.[22]
In 2020, ariver-class ferry on theSydney Ferries network was named in her honour.[23]
