Basketball: Thunderbolts sharpshooter Emily Tudman discusses her comeback and the upcoming final

The Tamworth resident has performed just about every role possible in the sport of basketball in 2022 - she has played, coached senior and junior rep teams, and umpired men's youth league games.

But as recently as two years ago, Tudman thought there was no chance that she would step on court again.

"In 2020, I was hanging up the representative basketball shoes," Tudman said.

"I've had two knee reconstructions and I'm on the back end of the time length that my surgeon had said I'd be able to play competitively."

Ironically, it was a due to a friend urging Tudman to try out for representative netball that led to her return to basketball, which she has played since the age of seven.

The 33-year-old decided if she was going to get back into sport after such serious injuries, she was going to do it right.

Discipline, she said, was the key.

"At the beginning of last year, I said to a friend of mine who owns a gym here in town that if I'm going to make a run back at basketball or a first attempt at rep netball, I don't want to half do it," Tudman said.

"I asked him to help me get back on track."

That commitment has paid off in spades. Tudman is not only readying to play in the Tamworth Thunderbolts' semi-final against the Canberra Academy Nationals this Saturday, but she is one of the biggest contributors to their run to finals.

In her first year of representative basketball since 2019, Tudman has averaged over 25 points a game, which she attributes to her dedication to fitness.

"I responded really, really well to the training and the regime and staying disciplined," she said.

The Thunderbolts are hoping Tudman can produce yet another high-scoring performance this weekend, but the veteran said they will need to play cohesively as a team if they are to upset Canberra.

"The teams that come out in the grand finals are the ones that take it that next step," she said.

"They know what they've got to do, they don't play for the name on the back of the jerseys, they play for the name on the front."

The competitive instinct that was sparked inside Tudman as a child has only grown stronger over time. It is, she believes, the primary driver behind her comeback to sport.

"The adrenaline kicks in during the games," she said.

"I suppose it's that competitiveness that was drilled into me growing up by junior coaches and state coaches. If you're going to do it, you don't do it at 50 per cent, you do it at 100 per cent.

"You're going to put in the effort if you want to wear that representative jersey."

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