Liz Ellis has savaged the lack of leadership at Netball Australia amid ongoing pay dispute

Aussie netball legend Liz Ellis says she felt embarrassed at not being able to attend an award named in her honour, but those feelings turned into anger soon after and led to one big question.

Australian netball legend Liz Ellis has savaged the lack of leadership at Netball Australia, calling upon the entire sport to question where the sport is headed under the current leaders running the sport.

Ellis has broken her silence after it emerged she was not initially invited to attend the Liz Ellis Diamond netball awards in Melbourne on Saturday.

In a lengthy Instagram post, Ellis explained that she received her invite on November 3 – just three weeks before the event – but on the exact same day RSVPs were due.

Australian netball legend Liz Ellis has slammed the game’s leaders. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Despite accepting an apology from Netball Australia chief executive Kelly Ryan, Ellis was unable to change her plans as she was already committed to another event on the same evening, with another former captain, Annie Sargeant, left to present the Liz Ellis Diamond to star defender Courtney Bruce.

But her embarrassment at not being able to attend an award named in her honour quickly became anger after hearing how players were issued legal threats to attend.

Diamonds contracted players were issued legal threats on the day of the event stating they must attend the awards ceremony rather than stand in solidarity with their Suncorp netball colleagues who refused to attend in protest at an ongoing pay dispute, which has left them without an income for over eight weeks.

Ellis said the way the players have been treated raises questions about the direction of the sport.

The 2023 World Cup Diamonds and staff on Saturday night. Picture: Graham Denholm/Getty Images

“My disappointment and embarrassment at not being able to attend turned into anger when I was made aware that current Diamonds players and their advisers were threatened with possible legal action if they did not attend the dinner,” Ellis wrote.

“As a former Diamonds captain, I cannot believe that the governing body of the sport I love would treat its Diamonds athletes, who are brilliant role models and ambassadors for netball with such callous disregard.

“These are women who have not been paid in eight weeks. Who are fighting for fair pay and conditions not only for themselves but for the players who come after them.

“Who consider themselves as custodians of the game. And who I suspect would love nothing more than to attend an event where their world-beating heroics of the past twelve months were to be celebrated. Yet who felt so strongly about what they were fighting for, that they were prepared to forgo those celebrations.

“So yet again netball finds itself in the headlines for the wrong reasons – another crisis entirely of the sport’s own making.

“This has happened so often in recent times the question must be asked whether Netball Australia is capable of providing the leadership the sport so desperately needs.

“This question must be asked not just by players, or ex-players like me, but by the whole system. 

“And it is a question which needs an immediate answer.”

Originally published as Liz Ellis has savaged the lack of leadership at Netball Australia amid ongoing pay dispute