Annette Sharp: Netball factions stir up strife as Gina Rinehart tries to save the day

Netball players have been happy to bank Origin Energy’s coal-fired sponsorship coin since 2020, so why the furore over Hancock Prospecting’s $15 million, asks Annette Sharp.

Gina Rinehart is a polarising figure in business, politics and the media, but within the sporting world she’s something of a saint.

The Australian Olympic Committee, Volleyball Australia, synchronised swimming’s Synchro Australia, Rowing Australia and swimmers including James Magnussen have all benefited from Rinehart’s generosity and largesse as, too, this month, did Netball Australia.

However as Rinehart has found, the factions within Australian netball now scrapping over the implications of the $15m four-year sponsorship deal with her Hancock Prospecting are a wildly disaffected and fractious bunch.

On one side of netball’s war table sits netball’s governing authority Netball Australia (NA), run by the only woman helming a major national sporting code Kelly Ryan, who came to the job in July 2021 from an AFL sports management background.

Ryan was immediately charged with the onerous task of reversing the organisation’s perilous $7 million-in-arrears financial position and looked to be making good headway when she opened talks with Rinehart.

The Diamonds netball team happily posing in their Hancock Prospecting-branded uniforms on October 3. Picture: Twitter

On the other side of the table is the netball players’ association ANPA, of which Kathryn Harby-Williams is chief executive, treasurer and secretary.

South Australian Harby-Williams is a former Diamonds captain (2000-2003) who presides over an association which defines itself online as “a collective voice to promote the interests and protect the welfare of Australia’s elite netballers”.

ANPA, on whose executive former player Liz Ellis once sat, has a history of releasing statements pronouncing Australian netballers to be devastated/aggrieved/worried in response to plans struck by NA — from which Harby-Williams was unceremoniously and spectacularly dumped in 2017.

Just three weeks ago Australian netball squad the Diamonds looked to be at peace with mining magnate Rinehart’s injection of cold hard cash into their sport.

And why wouldn’t they be? They’ve been happy to bank Origin Energy’s coal-fired sponsorship coin since 2020.

On October 3, the Diamonds posed for the cameras in new uniforms on which a Hancock Prospecting badge was sewn. Players later happily posted the images to their social media accounts.

Donnell Wallam reportedly baulked at the sponsorship …

… from Gina Rinehart’s mining company.

However, in the days that followed dissension quickly set in.

It emerged the players’ association had been provoked.

Initial media reports suggested ANPA was annoyed it hadn’t been informed Rinehart was the code’s new sponsor.

Newly installed NA chairwoman Wendy Archer later acknowledged ANPA was told of an “impending mining partnership” but not that it was with Rinehart.

Simultaneously, Indigenous goal shooter Donnell Wallam, who makes her Australian debut against England next week, reportedly baulked at the sponsorship.

Wallam had taken issue with the late Lang Hancock’s record concerning the Indigenous population, it was reported.

There’s no question old Lang said and did some hugely provocative, insensitive and environmentally-unfriendly things, and Wallam is entitled to ask Rinehart for an apology — and how heroic of her to do so.

It didn’t help her cause, though, when ex-netballer turned climate warrior Sharni Norder, Wallam’s mentor, revealed her affiliation to ANPA by slamming NA for a “lack of due diligence” over the new sponsor, seemingly confirming what others suspected — that retired players had been “educating” current Diamonds about “honouring (their) values”.

The Diamonds players celebrate a win in the Constellation Cup match against New Zealand on Thursday. Picture: Getty

The current dispute comes months after veteran player Ellis put her name to a private equity consortium bid by former cricketer Matt Berriman to buy the primary netball competition, Super Netball, for $6.5 million.

Berriman withdrew his offer in August, but insiders familiar with the current dispute say he is still posturing to acquire and privatise the code’s assets.

Berriman, who has bipolar disorder, and who once sued Cricket Australia, appears to have been pouring sugar into the ear of ANPA with a promise to offer improved mental health and wellbeing of players.

The RealVC founder, who incidentally appointed former ABC chief Michelle Guthrie to the board of his travel platform Travlr last year, has made no secret of his opposition to Rinehart, recently posting to Twitter: “Gina is destroying Australian land and creating harm to the climate.”

Environmentalists will no doubt agree, but for administrators charged with ensuring Australian netball’s survival, Rinehart appeared a saviour.

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