Dear netball community,
As I sign off from my time as Chief Executive Officer of Netball NSW I am happy to report that our staff have begun the process of safely transitioning back into the office environment at Netball Central in Sydney Olympic Park.
While this will take time and some getting used to for our passionate staff, never again will we take a full office for granted.
With disruption comes opportunity and there are positives to be salvaged from the COVID-19 Pandemic. I feel the most important is that 2020 has made us appreciate simple things.
Being able to step away from netball with our community looking towards 2021 with hope and optimism, instead of fear and uncertainty, is something that brings me great joy. It is a collective joy I proudly share with my team here at Netball NSW, and the wider netball community.
The staff at Netball NSW are just the tip of a huge, community-orientated iceberg which stands out in the choppy ocean that is the Australian sports industry.
This has been the most challenging year we’ve known in a generation, but it’s also a year in which netball stood up and was counted. As a code in the most competitive sports market on earth we’ve always had to box clever, especially when coming up against traditionally male-dominated sports.
However, when COVID-19 put the nation into lockdown it was netball which spoke loudest to demand a return-to-play path for community sport.
This was the very least our 115,000 registered members deserved. Few sports can match netball when it comes to grassroots participation. It is no longer just a popular game for young girls. It is now a political force for good; one that leads the way for all women at community and elite levels of sport.
This has only been made possible by the collective willingness of its athletes, coaches, officials, administrators and – most importantly – volunteers to leave the game in a better place than they found it.
I think of the inspirational videos shared with us earlier this year of coaches at netball clubs all over the state running Zoom sessions. I think of the 70 percent pay-cuts our Suncorp Super Netball players took, with little fuss, to ensure the game survived. Those same players, and support staff, then moved their lives to Queensland for three months to ensure elite female sport would have a platform in the winter months.
To have been with the netball over the past 18 years has been a privilege. To have worked with some of the finest people in Australian sport in that time has been my honour.
Writing this letter from the beautiful surroundings of Netball Central, looking across to the new home of the NSW Swifts and Giants Netball, Ken Rosewall Arena, illustrates how far we have come.
From humble, but historic, beginnings at the Anne Clark Centre in Lidcombe, netball now has pride of place in Australia’s most iconic sporting precinct. I joined Netball NSW three years after the 2000 Sydney Olympics and even back then I knew I’d come to a sport which had a passion that matched its ambition. It still does.
I think of the great people like Margaret Corbett OAM, who pioneered a new way of coaching which brought netball into the modern era. I remember the aura of players like Liz Ellis AM and Catherine Cox who were in the process of making the Swifts the great club it is today.
Netball is still on that upward trajectory. In fact, given it has the some of the strongest grassroots of any sport in Australia, and the world’s greatest female-team sports competition in Super Netball, the potential for this game is endless.
Today our juniors have two clubs they can aspire to play for. For every child looking to emulate Paige Hadley, another wants to be the next Jamie-Lee Price.
Remember, this is also an international game played worldwide. Our finest don’t just dream of playing in Sydney or Brisbane, but can also strive to shine in places like Cape Town, Auckland, London and Singapore.
And that is what I’ll cherish most when I reflect on my time with netball in the coming weeks and months.
I’ll think of a young Susan Pettitt, who grew up loving the game at her local courts down in Bega. She played State Titles. She played for State Teams. She flew as a Swift, and shone as a Diamond. She went from Bega to the world.
That’s what netball does. That’s what netball will continue to do. That’s what makes this game great.
I depart safe in the knowledge that the game stands on a strong footing for the years ahead. That is a testament to the wonderful people I've had by my side in my time here. It has been my pleasure to work with you all.
Carolyn
Carolyn Campbell – CEO, Netball NSW
