In fact, they will probably tell you the former national league netballer is the ultimate competitor and they would rather be on her team than against her.

Eather, also an Australian oztag representative, loves competition. She thrives on it. 

Tiffany Gilmour played with Eather in the national league and they are Souths Lions teammates in the Newcastle Open Championship.

“Fortunately I never really had to play her much,” Gilmour said.

“She has always been relentless. She goes for absolutely everything, puts her body on the line and is just an absolute competitor whether you are losing or winning by 20.”

But the University of Newcastle physical education lecturer also loves the enjoyment and social benefits of being involved in physical activity.

Through working to educate university students on positive coaching practices as well as being part of several research programs through the university’s Priority Research Centre in Physical Activity and Nutrition, she hopes to encourage and engage kids and adolescents in physical activity.

“I’m working on several research projects at the moment, they’re all in areas that I really like,” Eather said.

“I’ve got one where we’re doing coaching practices with the junior Jets coaches, improving coaching practices to be more game sense rather than skill drills.

“We did it with netball last year, we’re doing it with soccer this year and looking to do it with women’s AFL next year.”

She is also part of a program looking at the effects on the brain of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), called Burn 2 Learn.

“We’re trying to find ways to get people more active,” Eather said.

“We’re getting some really good results with the HIIT training. Everyone is time poor these days, so we’re finding ways to actually prove it works and trying to build the evidence.”

She said research had suggested by year 11, only 10 per cent of students met the recommended amount of physical activity.

Eather grew up in an era where riding your bike while your dad went for a jog or spending every afternoon at the local oval kicking or throwing a ball was what you did.

Today she feels as though there has become a competition between sport and entertainment.

“Watching TV, you get entertainment out of it, but what’s the value of it in your life,” she said.

“I would just like everyone to value activity in their lifestyle. I would just like them to find something that they really enjoy but also realise how much benefit it has because I think that outweighs having to put that extra effort in.

“And having that evidence to actually say that physical activity is good for your mental health ... find something you like, whether it’s walking or the gym, or dancing, find what you enjoy.

“You might get entertainment from other things but it’s what do you get from being involved with a group of people that you enjoy being with and what skills can you learn.

“That’s what I would like people to understand.”

Eather, who completed her PhD while juggling motherhood, work and elite netball commitments, created a program called Fit 4 Fun which helped improve the skills, knowledge and attitude towards physical activity in primary school children in years five and six.

“If we really want to promote sport and kids doing activity, we’ve got to make it enjoyable, we’ve got to make it active, we’ve got to make them engaged and enjoy being there and kids today are very hard to engage,” Eather said.

Through looking at coaching practices at grassroots level and also through educating teaching students at university, the inspirational 41-year-old mother of two is hoping to leave her mark for generations to come.

“How can we help them [volunteer coaches] improve what they do and in the long run our kids might not drop out of sport at 13 because they’re sick of doing the same things and they haven’t improved,” she said.

“If we can target those community, grassroots level coaches, improve what they do maybe our kids won’t drop out. I want to be involved in that, in helping clubs. I feel like that’s what I want to do, that’s how I feel I can help people.”

On the court, Eather is also still setting the standard in the top tier of Newcastle netball competition and shows no signs of slowing down.