Uproar as all-boys netball team beats girls to win state title

An all-boys netball team that beat a female side to win a state title this week was reportedly subjected to ugly abuse after the final.

An angry backlash has erupted after an all-boys netball team won a state title in Queensland by beating sides made up of female players in the decider.

The Queensland Suns Under-17 team was comprised entirely of boys and won the Under-18s championship in Brisbane this week, beating regional female teams en route to the trophy.

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The Courier Mail reports after the Suns beat the Bond University Bull Sharks 46-12 in the final, some members of the crowd directed abuse towards the boys, with many believing it was unfair they were allowed to compete.

Suns coach Tammy Holcroft told the publication: “The abuse ranged from comments made courtside deliberately within earshot of the Suns contingent, to adults making vulgar comments directly behind the team bench.

“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.”

Netball chief defends boys playing girls

Netball Queensland has strongly defended the state’s decision to allow an all-boys team to take part in the state netball competition.

“We want to make clear that there is a place for everyone in our sport,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

“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.

“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.”

Chief executive of Netball Queensland Catherine Clark stood by the decision and even said girls benefit from playing against boys as it pushes both males and females to improve their game.

“They (the boys) are really desperate to play and I think they played beautiful netball as did all of the girls teams,” Clark told the ABC.

Qld Netball chief Catherine Clark has defended the decision to allow an all-boys team play. .Pic Annette Dew

“But boys don’t have a lot of other places to play and they brought their game.

“We know that we can build and develop and strengthen the game of our girls by playing against the best players regardless of gender.

“If this was a girls team going into a boys competition, I would have the same position.

“Let’s get a stand-alone boys competition because all they want is an opportunity to play and compete and we are absolutely committed to creating that pathway for them.

“And I still think there will be a desire from a girls perspective to play against the boys.

“Develop your skills. You get better as a player if you play against strong teams and strong players.”

Clark explained the decision to let boys play in the competition was part of a wider move to encourage “diversity and inclusion” in netball.

This is an important discussion for us,” she said. “How do we become more open and more inclusive of boys in the sport of netball?

“It’s the principle of diversity and inclusion that we feel strongly about and hence we made the decision that we did.

“Whenever you play against better people, better teams, or just people who had a better day than you, you learn and you grow.

“We can learn watching males and females and in this case I would have backed the girls to win honestly.

“I think we’ve just got to focus on playing the game of netball and less on the gender.”

Uproar over decision to play boys against girls

NRL commentator and radio host Andrew Voss said it was “bulls***” the boys team, which was undefeated throughout the tournament and boasted an average winning margin of 29 goals, was allowed to compete against the girls.

“How is that common sense?” Voss said on his SEN breakfast show. “You’re surely not going to endorse that as the way of the future, at Under-18s level.

“They say they want to be inclusive, not exclusive. That’s bulls***. It’s a farce.”

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.”

In a Facebook post after the final, the Bull Sharks wrote: “Congratulations on an outstanding tournament to our 18U Women. Undefeated by other women’s teams for the week and runners up in the State Titles.”

The comments on a separate Facebook post promoting the final questioned why an all-boys team was competing against a girls side.

“Netball QLD in their wisdom thought it would be fair to include a young men’s state team against regional young women’s team and allow them to contest the State Title,” Jodie Muir wrote.

Renee Miles replied: “Netball QLD seems to be as intelligent as the QRL,” with a face palm emoji.

Netball Queensland posted about the success of the state titles on Facebook, but the comments underneath were extremely critical.

Did the push for gender equality backfire?

“While everyone is patting themselves on the back for being inclusive and allowing boys to play in this comp … has anyone stopped to ask the girls how they feel about this?” Alain De Villiers wrote. “What I saw during the comp was a bunch of excited energetic competitive girls … until they played the boys!

“After each game against the boys (where every team was beaten convincingly may I add) I watched girls become suddenly deflated and unenthused. It seemed most girls were initially keen to play the boys only to face the reality that the boys were physically stronger, could move faster and jump higher.

“Anyone with an ounce of common sense can see this is not good for netball. Please stop bringing your politics into this and think of the players.

“I am not hating on the boys at all, on the contrary I have utmost respect for them, they treated the girls were (sic) absolute respect and played hard and fair.

“I even heard a whisper they offered to withdraw from the grand final. Let’s keep netball fair and ensure boys play against boys, for everyone’s sake.”

Jason Ward added: “It is an absolute disgrace. How these decisions get made who know. Absolute stupidity and inclusiveness gone mad. Done nothing to inspire girls who were humiliated.”

Joe Muir commented: “I don’t know of any sport in the world that would have allowed this to happen, total disgrace.”

On Twitter, Noely Neate told her nearly 24,000 followers: “They got it wrong big time. Fine for Suns to play when is an exhibition style thing, but not when it is a trained hard for ‘championship’ style thing, as why bother with all that work when can never win?

“Should have had a parallel comp for the guys at same time & venue.

“I think Netball Queensland screwed up really badly here. Not only hurt the girls who have trained so hard & made mockery of championships but put the Suns in a really sh***y position too when they need more support from netball fans to get a boys/mens comp running.”

Should boys be allowed to compete against girls?