Tall and very capable, 17-year-old Canterbury student Colleen Falloon was the bolter in the 1960 Silver Ferns team which played a three-Test away series against Australia.

The find of the 1959 New Zealand Tournament, she could be relied on in all situations against the most challenging of opposition, excelling when playing alongside her agile and athletic Canterbury team-mate Judy Blair (nee Dunlop), also a teenager, under the hoop.

Playing under the international seven-a-side rules for the first time, Falloon was the youngest player in the 1960 team and well suited to the new format. The learning curve of 1960 was enough to see the youthful Falloon re-selected in the 1963 Silver Ferns team which finished runners-up at the inaugural Netball World Cup in England, by which time she had become the No 1 goal shoot.