Netball Contact

July 23, 2016

Musings on the game I have come to love

Netball has been part of my life the last 20 years. From the first tentative steps onto Cintra Park in Concord (Sydney) with our eldest daughter donning her starched and pleated green skirt, the game has become not only a meaningful family activity but also through my increasing level of activity with Netball Australia an important metaphor for the Australia I want to live in.This essay is one of thematics which when taken together form a compelling narrative.

Women’s Rule

The first of these is to acknowledge and watch in wonder at how the game is managed, run and championed by women. If there was ever any doubt that women could manage, a prolonged exposure to netball would pulverise that doubt and ensure that it is in the most famous of words ‘dead, buried and cremated’.

The game runs like clockwork, the rules are precise and those who participate agree to abide by them in dogmatic compliance. Learning and practice is handed down from more experienced women to the first time moms and increasingly dads who take a position along the sideline, fighting their inherent desire to scream and encourage and learning to be silent and to accept the umpire’s decision (with at best, subdued mutterings of unfairness).

An unintended consequence of this rule of law is an inherent resistance to change or ensuring that change is a slow and considered thing. Again here the fact that the game is run by women allows netball to not only be reflective about how it is structured but have the maturity to identify what needs to change and to champion that change through a top-down leadership approach.

Through this essay I will reference One Netball as one of the vehicles through which this change has occurred in the area of diversity and inclusion.

Equality

When I consider netball to the other game I spent a lot of time with as a father, football (soccer), the inherent values of netball become clear.

Netball is the ultimate team sport, one in which its parts have to work together to achieve success. A GK cannot move up the court and shoot a winning goal. This is not their role. Through those ubiquitous thirds the ball has to pass through designated limitations from player to player ultimately to allow one of two people to take the glory shot.

The MVP award in every game is a lottery. If our team is up against fiercer and better competition, the focus shines on our defensive third and often one of the GK or GD gets the nod.

When we are playing well and winning by large margins the focus moves up the court to the forward third with the GS or GA catching the eye.

When games are evenly matched it is the midcourt players who come into prominence, having to win the ball, link the defence with attack, be elusive when moving forward and stick like glue when the ball is with the opposition. In these games it is the C or WA or WD who attract focus and attention.

Every player has a role and everyone knows that role. While it may be more disciplined than free-flowing basketball, or football that can change configuration or structure depending on the circumstances, it is this restriction which defines roles, encourages excellence, and more importantly conveys the compelling message that without each component working there is absolutely no way a team can shine.

The game is therefore not about heroes but about players; players who hug before the game, during the breaks and certainly after the game. The beauty and value of sport and competition are demonstrated in this and no more poignantly than after watching an elite league game or international game in which the players of both sides unite to form one inclusive circle regardless of their joy or disappointment.

Elite Sport

Netball is an elite sport with elite athletes. I have been privileged to watch a number of Australia/New Zealand games between the Diamonds and the Silver Ferns. Sometimes these games are one-sided, but more often than not some of the closest sporting competitions that have ever been played.

This is a non-body contact sport but the physical punishment these women endure is visibly evident in the number of ice packs and bruises carried on tired bodies cooling down at the end of a game.

In a game in which the attacking players are expected to score, it is the heroics of the defence which draw the attention. A Sharni Layton intercept, or a jump to tip the ball away from a taller attacker is best savoured in the auditorium and close enough to hear her battle cries.

There is excitement in seeing Kimberley Green as the Marvel superhero Silk using her superhuman speed to be everywhere on the court with only vapour trails in between.

There is awe in appreciating the long frame and sharp shooter skills of Susan Pettitt who after scoring with a long range bomb almost doubles up to hide her height as she retrieves the ball to return it to the centre.

If you haven’t guessed which team I follow you are clearly not yet a convert. Go swiftly to learn.

These women are the heroes to so many young girls who play the game every Saturday morning. They are also the perfect role models. There has never been a sex or alcohol scandal involving one of the Diamonds players, nor indeed one of the current ANZ trans-Tasman competition players, and certainly not in the elite pipeline of younger girls in representative teams. These elite athletes model an attitude, they model extreme skills, and they model the very best in modern day sport.

It is from these ranks that Netball Australia draws its One Netball Ambassadors, women from all backgrounds who are happy to step up to combat racism, to speak out about discrimination, and to champion multiculturalism. This is One Netball.

Inclusion

Netball hasn’t always been acknowledged or seen as an inclusive sport. This is borne out in research which indicates the very low level of participation of girls from a variety of non-English-speaking backgrounds. In fact many of these girls have been moving towards football as not only their preferred sport but as a conduit to the preferred sport of many of their fathers.

Rather than displaying arrogance and resistance to change Netball Australia has embraced the challenge, understood the need to change and the appreciated the value of promoting this sport as a vehicle for far greater community cohesion. By getting these things right, numbers will follow.

Netball Australia’s One Netball initiative is now a few years old and it has a lot of success to claim. It has brought the game to many new communities who do not have the same dynastic relationship handed down from mother to daughter that the game has relied on. Articulated programs working with new arrival on refugee communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and diverse religious communities are constantly challenging and refreshing both perceptions of netball and its position as a sport for all.

By acknowledging that it was their responsibility to reach out and invite new communities into the netball family, Netball Australia has laid significant foundations for the promotion, participation and enjoyment of the game in a broader group of young women, which will in turn underpin its future.

Over the years I have heard the words netball family referenced many, many times. I consider myself part of the family though the word itself is limiting. The reality is that it is much more than a family it is in fact a community. A community which is not exclusive, but one which seeks to share the friendships, the engagement and the community connection that being part of the sport provides.

One of the legacy issues Netball Australia has had to address is its relationship with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and with those extraordinary women from these backgrounds who excelled in the sport. There has long been a feeling that not enough was done to recognise and elevate those players into the pantheon of the sport alongside the other famous names which we now can easily recite; Ellis, Sargeant, Harby-Williams and Wilson.

Through acknowledging the wrongs of the past and through establishing a collaborative and consultative approach with current Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players as well as key community figures Netball Australia has come a long way. I was privileged to be part of the launch of the Netball Australia RAP (Reconciliation Action Plan) in 2015 which was attended by the two Aboriginal women who had represented Australia Marcia Ella Duncan OAM and Sharon Finnan OAM.

For the occasion Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists in each State and Territory were approached to paint a netball representing the local area. Two balls were painted for each jurisdiction with one to be held by Netball Australia, the other by the State and Territory netball Association.