, as well as soccer, represents an unprecedented challenge to our longstanding status as Australia’s No.1 sport for women and girls.
The pressing, prudent and brave question to ask is: now that Australia are the world’s best on the court, what will it take for us to be the best off it? The truth is we can do better, and so we must. Because our grassroots are strong. For generations, netball has been one of Australia’s most-loved sports. It is the most popular sport for women and girls and isIt’s also structured, so it uses far less space per player than the football codes, and there is a place for every body type and every level of athletic ability. And netball does not faceOn court, Super Netball is the best netball league in the world.
More than four years ago, Australian Netball, in anticipation of the women’s sport revolution we are seeing, commissioned a “State of the Game” review. It offered a blueprint for netball to compete and thrive in a new women’s sporting world. It provided detailed recommendations for each of the success factors above. I was privileged to chair the group that guided the work that offered a road map for Australian Netball’s future prosperity. Of course some of its recommendations are hard.
The players have scaled Everest. Time for Netball Australia to break base camp, and do whatever it takes to climb the mountain, too.