WHEN a player in the netball team Nash Hosking’s mother was competing in suffered an unfortunate injury, the young boy on the sidelines saw an opportunity.
Having been enthralled watching his mum and her team play every weekend, Nash pleaded to get the chance to fill the void.
“I begged mum to go on the court and she said, 'yeah, you have one chance. Just try and play as hard as you can’,” Nash recalls.
“From then on that's just where I started loving playing netball."
Nash’s love for netball only grew over the coming years as he continued to play regularly at Mudgeeraba Netball Club.
Unfortunately, when Nash was 12 requirements that boys cannot play unrestricted beyond that age appeared to have brought an end to his netball career.
Once again, it was Nash’s mum who worked out a solution.
"It's a bit hard to find a place that I could go and play because ... I just didn't know what the next stage was," Nash said.
"Mum kept on looking for me. She had connections through indoor and they said, 'Oh, why don't you go play for the Queensland Suns?'
“I was like, 'oh, but I'm a bit young for the 17s.' And they're like, 'Nah, just give it a go.' So I gave it a go and that's how it took off."
The Suns gave Nash the opportunity to take his netball beyond his humble beginnings with Mudgeeraba in the Hinterland District Netball Association.
In 2019 Nash was among the Australian 17U that competed in New Zealand, and he remains a member of the Suns’ Open Mens team.
The growth of male netball in recent times certainly has been overlooked by Nash, including last year's signing of a memorandum of understanding between Netball Queensland and the Suns to drive participation in the sport by men and boys.
“You see all these younger people coming up through the under 17 teams and under 20s, and it's very exciting being able to be linked with Netball Queensland ... hopefully, it will take off from there and men's netball will be more recognised than it is now,” he said.
“At Mudgeeraba when I went down there a couple of months ago, there was this young boy and mum that came up to me and said that she used to watch me when I was a little kid, and her son always wanted to play netball.
“He was obviously inspired by me, which was an amazing feeling. I've never felt anything like that before, and he just came up to me and was giving me high fives and stuff.”
As to his own netball ambitions, the man who was that eight-year-old boy pleading with his mum for one chance to get on court is far from finished – especially as speculation continues regarding a push to have netball included as a sport for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
“As soon as I heard talk about Olympic Games that was my goal from now on,” Nash said.
“2032 is just what I'm working towards … I would love to represent my country in the Olympics. That would be amazing.”
And just as she was all those years ago, it’ll be Nash’s mum doing all she can to ensure her son’s netball ambitions become reality.
“She's been my coach from day one,” Nash said.
“I obviously watched her play when I was younger and then she was my coach all the teams at Mudgeeraba that I played in. She's developed my base skills for netball, really.
“She has been helping me through this whole journey and she's definitely pushing for me to strive for more and play harder in everything that I do in netball.”
