Wow, what about last week? In terms of big news in netball those were a few days I won’t forget quickly.
Before I go on, I would like to say that we - as a club - were caught very much off-guard by the announcement that Suncorp Super Netball would be implementing a two-goal shot for the revised 2020 season.
It is important to state that I believe players, coaches and other decision makers at the club should have been consulted before the announcement was made. Changes of this magnitude should always have the key stakeholders engaged first, and I hope ongoing communication with the League’s power-brokers will be better as a result of the blow-back over the past week.
Is this an ideal situation? No. Could it have been avoided? Yes. But are the Swifts going to let it derail the entire season? Definitely not.
If last season taught us anything it’s that our players are adaptable. It is one of the main reasons we won the Premiership. We lost three of our rostered 10 players – including our captain – to season-ending injuries. Our international goal attack was injured at key times throughout the year. To be honest I am still amazed we showed the resilience we did having been thrown so many curveballs.
The Super Shot is another curveball, but it’s one that every team faces, and while I am not happy with how it was announced I don’t necessarily think it is a bad thing.
As a coach this is a new challenge. I never planned for it but it’s something Anita Keelan and I just have to deal with. It is how we rise to what's thrown at us that determines success. The same goes for our playing group. Believe me, there has been plenty of debate in our dressing room over the pros and cons of the new rule but the focus remains simple. Retain the title.
This is a change but it’s not the first-time netball has introduced radical alterations to the game. At one time it was illegal to defend a shot. Imagine poor Sarah Klau and Maddy Turner trying to play then. It was also illegal for the GA to enter the centre-third. Now we all love watching Helen Housby dart in and out of the circle, inter-playing with Paige Hadley and Maddy Proud.
If the Super Shot doesn’t take off, I am confident that Super Netball will be mature enough to admit it was an error and rescind the rule. But at least they’ll have tried. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I’m hoping it’s a success purely because I never want to see the game I love fail. Part of me is also glad to see netball finally take some risk. I was proud the way Netball NSW led the charge to get community sport back this year, and perhaps this is the shot in the arm needed to show the wider nation just how jaw-droppingly good the the elite game is. But first up you have to invite them in.
No sport, no matter how successful it is, should be happy to rest on its laurels. The biggest codes in the world - soccer, basketball, rugby union, NFL – are constantly working on their elite games to grow and make them more accessible to wider audiences. If you are standing still, you’re going nowhere.
Australia has the most competitive sports market on earth and, unlike the USA, most of them compete against each other in terms of timing. Rugby league and AFL mightn’t have much international clout but they are huge players here. Then you have rusted on cricket fans, as well as other staunch supporters of soccer and rugby union. Now all of these codes have women’s programs. Make no mistake, they want netballers in their games - not ours.
Let me finish with a quote I gave to the ABC last week when asked what I thought of the new shot. It involved two of the greatest ever Swifts:
“Twenty years ago our best Australian shooters could score from anywhere in the circle and our defenders had to match them. Liz Ellis and Cath Cox came from this era and they had pretty good careers, didn’t they?”
Maybe we’re about to go back to the future. Go NSW Swifts.
Briony
