Gender furore erupts at Queensland U18 netball titles as all-boys team sweeps to victory
Netball Queensland has delivered a strong response to the furore gripping the sport. Read the full statement here.
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Former Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander has weighed in on the netball gender debate as Netball Queensland issued a scathing response to the furore engulfing the game in the Sunshine State.
It comes after the Queensland Suns under-17 boys team took part in the state titles in Brisbane earlier this week, competing for the trophy against regional girls outfits.
They won the title convincingly, beating the Gold Coast’s Bond University Bull Sharks 46-12 in a one-sided final despite being the target of vile abuse from mainly adults in the Nissan Arena crowd.
READ NETBALL QUEENSLAND’S FULL RESPONSE BELOW
And while Netball Queensland said it recognised its stance on inclusion would be met with highly charged debate, it would forge ahead with the new program.
In the statement Netball Queensland slammed the behaviour of a select few spectators.
“We want to make clear that there is a place for everyone in our sport,” the statement reads. “We stand by the decision to choose inclusion over exclusion. And, to invite the Queensland Suns to return to the State Titles given they have limited opportunities to play in a high performance environment due to low participation numbers and limited pathways.
“We recognise that change is sometimes uncomfortable, and we are buoyed by the support of our wider netball community who are embracing men and boys in competition formats and have done so for some time in a mixed netball capacity.
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“We’d like to address the assertion that the young women who played the State Titles were disadvantaged in any way. Our intent, from the outset, was to ensure all athletes were encouraged to perform to their best ability in a high-performance environment.
“The adult men’s teams regularly train against our Sapphire and Firebirds teams so, this is not new to our high-performance pathway. In fact, our senior teams played and drew 66 all in their most recent competition demonstrating the depth of talent and benefits of our women’s teams playing against the men’s teams.
“The Under 18s State Titles is traditionally the first exposure many athletes have to playing against men and we see this as a great development opportunity.
“The inclusion of both women and men in the competition in 2021 was about affording all netballers the opportunity to play and develop our great game.
“While we have been subject to commentary around the different physical attributes it should also be remembered that men are new participants to our sport and play a different style of netball.
“It’s also imperative that we provide a platform for men and boys to participate – because if you can’t see it, you can’t be it. And we aspire to be a sport for all.
Given the evolving conversations and overwhelming support for the inclusion of boy’s and men’s teams, we are now preparing for a stand-alone competition in this age group at the State Titles in 2022.
“We would also like to express how extremely disappointed we are by the behaviour of a few people in the crowd.
“We want to explicitly say that this was not the behaviour of our players, rather spectators.
“We also want to make clear that we won’t tolerate vilification or abuse in any form in our game.”
While Alexander, who coached the Australian netball team from 2011-2020 and was responsible for developing some of the country’s greatest talents, applauded Netball Queensland for efforts to make the sport inclusive, she said Netball Queensland was “asking for trouble”.
But the physical differences between teenage boys and girls was too great for it to be a level playing field and Alexander said playing a single boys team - and a state-level outfit at that - was “not a sensible move”.
Alexander said their participation in the tournament as a stand-alone team was not a good idea.
“If it was two men’s teams (playing against the girls in the preliminary rounds), and they had a separate title for them, then no problem at all,” Alexander said.
“Even if they are under age and younger, it’s still not appropriate, you can’t compare.
“(The organisers) were probably asking for trouble by doing it - that’s not a sensible move in my opinion.
“I know what they were trying to do, they’re trying to make their sport inclusive, which is fantastic - and they should be.
“But perhaps they need to go for a boys, a mixed and a traditional girls’ (competition) as well.
“I don’t think boys and girls of that age group should be competing against each other because there are physical difference and capacities that men have over the top of women.”
Netball Queensland had compared the boys’ inclusion to New Zealand’s Cadbury series, an event in which the Silver Ferns take on the Kiwi men’s side as part of their preparation for international competition.
But Alexander said full competition was different.
“In this situation I don’t think is helpful because you’ve got girls who are in development phase, who need to show progression - they’re learning about the game and how to play it,” she said.
“They don’t then need this extra complication on top of it.”
But with netball needing a strong men’s presence as it pushes for a spot in the 2032 Olympics, greater inclusion and pathway for men and boys will be needed.
“Definitely it’s the right direction, I just don’t think it was the right organisation of the tournament,” Alexander said.
“It’s the right idea, it’s the right way to go, but you’ve got to have more boys’ teams and more mixed teams.
“At the moment, associations don’t have a lot of mixed teams, so even if it’s just boys and girls (divisions), or it’s mixed and girls, whatever way you can encourage it to happen is all you need.”
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A gender furore has erupted at a junior netball competition after the Queensland under-18 titles ended with an all-boys team abused by a large crowd after they swept to victory against all-female teams.
Netball Queensland has been accused of turning its own championships into a farce after they allowed the Queensland Suns under-17 boys’ team to compete for the trophy against regional outfits at the championships held in Brisbane this week.
The Suns beat the Bond University Bull Sharks 46-12 in a one-sided final at Brisbane’s Nissan Arena, during which they copped vile abuse from a crowd of thousands unhappy at their presence.
The boys, who do not have a state championships of their own due to player numbers, won their seven games by an average margin of 29 goals, with their closest contest coming in the semi-finals when the University of Sunshine Coast Thunder lost by 23 goals.
NRL legend Cameron Smith said former Melbourne Storm teammate Matt Geyer’s daughter played against the Suns team this week, and Smith’s wife went along to watch a game.
“She just said Matt’s daughter’s team were a gun side and they had no chance. The males were just too fast, too physical, it was just a disadvantage to the girls,” Smith said on SEN.
“It’s crazy. How do you put one male team in against all the other females and expect the girls to compete? Particularly at that age when they’re still developing. It’s not fair.
“That’s a weird one to enter a male team in the netball competition.”
The Suns competed last year as an invitational side but they were given full status this year and able to compete for the title.
The move angered players, officials and parents, who in many cases paid out hundreds of dollars for their daughters to attend the tournament.
And it put the Suns players in an untenable position.
Suns head coach Tammy Holcroft said most of the anger came from adults, not opposition players.
“The abuse ranged from comments made courtside deliberately within earshot of the Suns contingent, to adults making vulgar comments directly behind the team bench,” Holcroft said.
“It’s disappointing that the frustration was directed at the players.
“At the very core of this, our boys just want to play and they copped the brunt of these comments and behaviours and were made to feel unwelcomed and unsupported.
“Our priority, as always, is the welfare of our players and we will continue to support them in everything they do.”
Bond University head of netball Stuart Allen said it was disappointing the club’s women had such a strong tournament and finished it being soundly beaten in a “mismatch”.
“I think most people would regard it as a mismatch — and that’s no fault of the boys,” Allen said.
“We’d have probably preferred if Netball Queensland had said to us: ‘We’re really trying to grow the boys’ sport and we want you to try and get a boys team together so we can have a four or six-team regional competition’.
“Even if we could only get two of those teams but they were genuine regional teams, they would have been better placed to compete as full members of the competition as opposed to a state team.”
Allen said Bond’s women “would and have and do” play against men at training.
“That’s an accepted part of training, it hasn’t to date been an accepted part of competition.”
Netball Queensland CEO Catherine Clark said the organisation stood by its decision.
“We stand by the decision to choose inclusion over exclusion. To accept a request form the Queensland Suns to play given they have nowhere else to play,” Clark said.
“Let’s judge the decision in 12 months’ time and see how many boys and men’s teams we have - because if you can’t see it, you can’t be it.
“We encourage everyone that entered a team this year to enter a boys or men’s team next year — all boys want is to be afforded an opportunity to play.”
Originally published as Gender furore erupts at Queensland U18 netball titles as all-boys team sweeps to victory
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