Aliyah Maryanne Heneriata Dunn
Early life, family and education
Dunn was born and raised in
Invercargill.
She is of Māori and Samoan descent.
She is a distant cousin of Te Amo Amaru-Tibble. They had never met before becoming 2021 Central Pulse team mates. However, they found out they are related through Dunn's
Southland Region-based grandmother, who was originally a Tibble with Ngāti Porou family connections.
Dunn also has Whakatōhea, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui affiliations.
Both of Dunn's parents played representative basketball for Southland. Her father, Terrence, also played for
Southland Sharks. Aliyah's four siblings have all played basketball at a representative level. In her youth, Dunn played both representative netball and basketball.
She attended Te Wharekura o Arowhenua and
Verdon College.
Netball
Playing career
Southern Steel
Dunn was a fringe member of the 2017 Southern Steel team, making two appearances as Steel won the inaugural ANZ Premiership title.
She began the season playing for Netball South, Southern Steel's reserve team, in the Beko Netball League.
On 30 April she made her
ANZ Premiership debut for Steel in a 66–46 win against
Northern Mystics. Dunn replaced Jhaniele Fowler-Reid with two minutes left in the fourth quarter.
On 14 June, after four Steel players were injured in a road traffic accident, Dunn was one of four Netball South players called up to the Steel team for a 51–46 win against
Mainland Tactix.
Central Pulse
Ahead of the 2018 season, Dunn signed for
Central Pulse.
Dunn was subsequently a prominent member of the Pulse teams that won the 2019, 2020 and 2022 ANZ Premiership titles.
In 2018 she landed 524 goals from 577 attempts with a 91% accuracy. Only
Lenize Potgieter was more accurate.
Dunn finished the 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons as the most accurate New Zealand shooter in the league with 92%, 91% and 90% returns, respectively.
In 2022 Dunn was the ANZ Premiership's leading goal-scorer, landing 618 out of 664 with 93% accuracy.
Between 2018 and 2022, Dunn played and scored in four grand finals for Pulse.
At the end of the 2022 season, Dunn announced she was leaving Pulse.
Mainland Tactix
Ahead of the 2023 season, Dunn signed for
Mainland Tactix.
New Zealand
Dunn was a member of the New Zealand team that won the 2017 Netball World Youth Cup.
She made her senior debut for New Zealand on 18 September 2018 against South Africa during the September 2018 Netball Quad Series.
In October 2018 she featured for New Zealand in the 2018 Constellation Cup
and was a member of the Fast5 Ferns team that won the 2018 Fast5 Netball World Series.
Despite her impressive scoring stats with
Central Pulse and been called up for training squads, Dunn was not included in the 2019 Netball World Cup or 2022 Commonwealth Games squads.
Statistics
Grand finals
ANZ Premiership statistics
|- style="background-color: #eaeaea"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2017
|style="text-align:center;"|Steel
||| || || || || || || || ||2
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2018
|style="text-align:center;"|
Central Pulse
|||?||0||0||?||2||2||30||62||16
|- style="background-color: #eaeaea"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2019
|style="text-align:center;"|
Central Pulse
|||17||0||0||24||0||8||46||76||16
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2020
|style="text-align:center;"|
Central Pulse
|||20||0||0||23||3||6||19||49||14
|- style="background-color: #eaeaea"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2021
|style="text-align:center;"|
Central Pulse
|||28||0||0||46||2||10||31||62||15
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2022
|style="text-align:center;"|
Central Pulse
|||?||0||0||34||1||12||15||57||16
|- style="background-color: #eaeaea"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2023
|style="text-align:center;"|
Mainland Tactix
||| || || || || || || || ||
|- class="sortbottom"
! colspan=2| Career
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
|}
Basketball
Playing career
New Zealand
Between 2015 and 2017, Dunn represented New Zealand at under-17 and under-19 (Junior Tall Ferns) levels. She was selected to play for the under-17s aged just 15 while attending
Verdon College. She subsequently played for New Zealand teams that toured
Fiji and China.
Club level
In 2019, Dunn was a member of the Capital Swish team that won Women's Basketball Championship Division 2 title.
After missing out on selection for the New Zealand national netball team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Dunn switched codes and signed for Tokomanawa Queens in the new Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa league.
Honours
Netball
- New Zealand
-
Fast5 Netball World Series
-
Netball World Youth Cup
- Central Pulse
-
ANZ Premiership
-
Winners: 2019, 2020, 2022
-
Runners up: 2017, 2018
-
Minor premiers: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022
-
Netball New Zealand Super Club
- Southern Steel
Basketball
- Tokomanawa Queens
-
Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa
