Super Netball 2023: Netball Australia CEO Kelly Ryan on sport’s growth, interest levels

Concerned by first-time fans being “shocked” by the quality of Super Netball, bosses have made a huge shift to safeguard the sport’s future amid huge growth in other women’s sports.

The gloves are off.

Netball has taken a deliberate decision to reposition itself in the women’s sport market as newcomers like AFLW and NRLW continue to grow towards professionalism.

The football codes have cannily leveraged their men’s competitions and structures to gain blanket coverage since their birth, with netball sitting back politely despite being the country’s No. 1 sport for women and girls.

Netball’s rallying cry of “here if you need” encompasses so much that is good about the sport and remains a key slogan for the sport’s grassroots.

But Netball Australia, in conjunction with broadcast partner Fox Sports have declared “We are here” in a bid to have fans and audiences appreciate Super Netball as a fierce contest between the world’s best athletes.

Super Netball has plans to ward off the growing threat from other sports.

Netball Australia chief executive Kelly Ryan said it was “incredibly important” for the sport to own its position in what was becoming a crowded women’s sport field.

“I think we’ve been a bit too nice and a bit too considerate if you like. The sport at the elite level is nothing like at the community level,” Ryan said.

“It’s so remarkable when you take someone to a Super Netball game for the first time, they’re just in shock.

“They’re like, ‘Oh wow, (the athletes are) incredibly fit, they’re incredibly fierce, this is quick.’

“But the fact that they’re shocked is a worry.”

The reactions made officials realise there was a crucial part of the elite netball story they were not telling.

“About how the game transitions from what it’s like at community, through to how it’s actually played at the elite level,” she said.

“They play to win and it hurts to lose — and the amount of effort and energy that they put in to being the best versions of themselves is remarkable and they put an amazing experience on court and I think it’s time now that the sport actually got behind what that is and we do our best to promote that and tell that story more.”

Netball Australia chief Kelly Ryan. Picture: Jason Edwards

Dan Ryan and Alice Teague-Neeld embrace after West Coast Fever’s grand final win.

Super Netball is widely recognised as the best league in the world, with players from several nations taking part in the game.

But staying at the top of the tree will require growth and positioning the Super Netball competition and its athletes as the best of the best – rather than “ponytail flickers” as one captain described their current image, will be crucial.

“Everything’s about growth,” Ryan said.

“So we have to be really considerate – which we have been – in the marketing, repositioning, if you like – and it is a pretty big repositioning of the sport – because we think it will actually grow the audience, grow the attendance for the engagement, from a digital perspective, grow our broadcast numbers.

“We have to be really pointed that we’re not doing stuff just for the sake of doing it. We’re doing it because we genuinely believe it will actually create an opportunity for growth across the elite game.”

That belief is backed up by numbers revealed by Fox Sports at Tuesday’s Super Netball launch in Melbourne.

Kelly Ryan says Netball Australia is confident in the quality of Super Netball.

Fox broadcast 800 hours of coverage last year, with an average of 170,000 people watching the grand final between the West Coast Fever and Melbourne Vixens.

The sport will be available to fans in 4K Ultra HD for the first time this season, something that will please not just those watching live – numbers that grew as Fox and Netball Australia came together to agree on prime time slots for the sport on Saturday nights – but the 57 per cent of the audience streaming through Kayo and on demand, making netball the most accessible sport in the country.

The brand repositioning has won support from players including Queensland Firebirds captain and former Diamond Kim Ravaillion.

“We are the top women’s sport and we’re very much highlighted to be the ‘ponytail flickers’, when really, if you come to a live game and see it for yourself you can actually see how hard we go on the court how physical the game actually is,” Ravaillion said.

“We mean business. We work out, we train really hard and we should be looked at as strong, fierce women.”

Round 1 of Super Netball will be played on March 18-19, with the opening weekend featuring a grand final replay between the Fever and Vixens in Perth.

Originally published as Super Netball 2023: Netball Australia CEO Kelly Ryan on sport’s growth, interest levels