The recent Leaders Conference provided those in our netball community with many thought provoking presentations. Two presentations in particular seemed to resonate strongly.
- David Mills spoke about Mens, Mixed and Indoor Netball and the opportunities to grow our sport with greater focus in these areas
- Matthew Battams spoke about the need to expand our target market and argued that netball is currently focusing on 7.8% of the population.
The enthusiasm for including more males in our sport was clear. However, there was also confusion about the ability to include boys in our game beyond the age of 12.
The following information is provided for clarification. If you require more information, please contact your respective Delivery Network Lead or Tanya Ward at tanya.ward@netballq.org.au to discuss how Netball Queensland can help you and your community include more male players in our sport.
The Netball Australia Junior Policy clearly states at what age competitions can be established as ‘Girls only’ (page 6 outlines the policy on gender). Additionally, the Federal Sex discrimination act 1984 states “It is not unlawful to exclude persons of one sex from participating in any competitive sporting activity in which the strength, stamina or physique of competitors is relevant. This exception does not allow discrimination in the coaching, umpiring or administration of the sport, any prescribed sporting activity, or sporting activities involving children under 12.” Essentially, the law does not distinguish between male and female players in any sport until the age of 12.
An Association may outline the structure of their competitions (including the inclusion of a mixed/boys competition) in their constitution, by-laws or competition rules; all of which can be changed by the Association with varying levels of approval required.
Some Associations have started to change their competitions to mixed competitions rather than girls only, or in some cases, have changed one of their divisions to mixed and kept the others as girls only.
The Queensland State Mens and Mixed Netball Association recently affiliated with Netball Queensland and are known as the Queensland Suns. The Suns were planning to send seven teams in age groups from 17yrs to Opens to the National titles in April this year. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 the National Titles did not proceed, however the team are currently training hard for the 2021 Championships.
The Suns have recently completed their strategic planning and are focused on developing juniors, including holding clinics (in the school holidays) and will investigate starting a junior boys competition. More information can be found about the Suns on their website, facebook or twitter. If you would like to be added to their email distribution list, please email admin@qldsuns.com.au to be informed about upcoming events.
The momentum at the elite level is also building, with Netball Queensland’s CEO Catherine Clark raising the idea of introducing a men’s competition to the HART Sapphire Series. There has also been support for a men’s league at the Suncorp Super Netball level.
We strongly recommend committees add the expansion of offering to boys in netball to the agenda of their next meeting. We cannot afford to be limited by the traditional way netball has been offered. If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that our community is adaptable and are keen to get on court, so we should be doing everything within our power to expand this to a larger market.
Netball Queensland plans to host a webinar specifically on boys and men in netball, where we expect to be joined by those who have been central to the development of this growing element of our netball community. The webinar will include incredible footage highlighting all that male netball brings to our sport, as well as stories from those who have experienced the Mens pathway first hand. Look out for the invite soon.
In the meantime if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Netball Queensland.
