Gloves come off in the fight for netball’s heart

A simple matter of administrative reform has spiralled out of control in Queensland’s netball community.

Gail Lyne and Ipswich Netball Association members Julie Haines, Nicole Virtue, Leisa Donlan and Amanda Price feel they are fighting for survival. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

A simple matter of administrative reform has spiralled out of control in Queensland’s netball community, unleashing threatening emails, board leaks, defamation action, a private investigator sniffing around clubs and a police investigation.

With the Super Netball finals about to be played in their heartland, officials at Netball Queensland are locked in dispute with a group of stalwarts from the sport’s clubs, disparagingly referred to as “Deidres”.

Netball Queensland says it is attempting to drag the administration of the sport into the 21st Century, while some in clubland see the proposed changes as a naked grab for power.

“Volunteers are the heart of community sport, and we feel as if we are fighting for our survival,” said Ipswich Netball Association president Gail Lyne.

It all starts with “The Biome”, Netball Queensland’s ambitious strategic plan designed to centralise local sports administration and support clubs with professional development and software ­packages.

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The Biome was always going to ruffle feathers in netball, a sport largely funded by its grassroots members through fees collected by local clubs.

Local associations immediately saw it as a cash grab from the Brisbane head office.

Netball Queensland insists that it never intended to take fees from clubs, and that associations have conflated this with a separate, since-abandoned initiative designed to pool local savings to spend on important infrastructure.

Netball Queensland chief executive Catherine Clark is widely admired by the sport’s high-level administrators as a smart, ambitious leader in a game that has struggled to retain qualified executives.

Netball Queensland chief executive Catherine Clark.

She describes herself as a “self-disruptive leader”, and is seen as someone who wants to leave a legacy of change.

But as a former staff member told The Australian: “Netball Queensland isn’t BHP”, and widespread change can be very hard to implement in a sporting organisation.

Clark’s reform agenda ran aground thanks to stiff resistance from what she sees as a minority of entrenched clubs that understandably find change frightening.

She insists that repeated invitations to meet with these associations have all been turned down.

The associations say that the sales job on the plan was always incomplete, and that they struggled to get answers in writing on matters finance and governance.

Former Netball Queensland staff members have told The Australian there was massive confusion around those details even among those dispatched by NQ to go out and sell the model.

A Netball Queensland fact sheet created in February with the tagline “anything you hear otherwise is incorrect” seemingly addressed many of the concerns of the associations, albeit without providing great detail. But by this point the conflict was already spiralling out of control.

Macgregor Netball Association, based in Brisbane’s southern suburbs, filed a motion calling for Netball Queensland chairwoman Jane Seawright’s removal from the board at an annual general meeting in March. It was accompanied by an email that added personal accusations about the behaviour of the president.

Jane Seawright

Seawright, who is a lawyer, began defamation proceedings against Macgregor’s president. The motion was dropped, and a full apology soon followed. It was not the first time Seawright felt it necessary to begin legal action against a member of the netball community.

Then, during her address at the AGM, held over a Zoom conference call, Seawright criticised the collection of associations that had dug their heels in over reform.

“It is very disappointing that a small, but loud minority of our community, the Deidres, are still denying the need to introduce modern technologies and ways of working … they’re doing so in ways that are calculated to cause maximum pain to others,” she said.

“The Deidres” is a term that had become popular inside the Netball Queensland offices, describing a certain kind of older woman in netball who was cynical, negative and territorial.

Clark says that the term was coined at a 2018 leadership summit by a motivational speaker, and that it was never said with malice.

But many in the sport find it highly offensive, and Seawright’s speech only served to aggravate the conflict.

The Weekend Australian is not suggesting that Seawright meant any offence by the term “Deidres” or used the term with any malice.

A second motion calling for a vote on the president’s position was filed in April, this time signed by five large associations. Netball Queensland was obliged to either call a special meeting or dismiss the motion, but before the shot clock on that decision expired, Seawright was elected to the Netball Australia board in July, forcing her resignation from the state body.

Meanwhile, an anonymous, handwritten letter was mailed to the Netball Queensland offices threatening Clark. The veteran administrator described it as a harrowing experience.

Seawright added that although some of this was the simple result of strong leaders driving change in their sport, there was also a personal aspect to these attacks.

“There is an individual who is waging a personal vendetta against me, and she has marshalled some of the disaffected associations who aren’t happy with the direction Netball Queensland’s taking,” Seawright said. “And I don’t really want to say any more about it than that.”

Netball Queensland decided to hire a private investigator to examine its board, employees and volunteers at state associations.

The target of the investigation was “accusations and actions that had the potential to bring Netball Queensland, the sport of netball and a number of individuals into disrepute”. Board leaks were a major concern.

More than a dozen email notices were sent out informing various individuals that they had been identified as either witnesses or respondents, and that they would be contacted by a private investigator. Recipients were told that they were not allowed to tell anyone else that they were under investigation without first seeking Netball Queensland’s consent.

It was enough to scare parts of the community into silence at midweek matches. Suddenly, some coaches and volunteers who loved a good gossip on the sidelines refused to talk.

It wasn’t enough to silence the wedge of resistant associations, though. They escalated the issue, filing a lengthy complaint in August with Netball Australia’s integrity officer that asked the national body to step in and investigate both its newest director, Seawright, and Netball Queensland.

The response was quick and clear: Netball Australia could not investigate the issue, and advised the association to seek mediation with Netball Queensland.

Netball Queensland’s investigation has now concluded, with no further action deemed necessary. The handwritten letter has been sent to police and remains the subject of a criminal investigation.