Lisa Alexander: How Super Netball can salvage itself after Collingwood withdrawal

How does netball find a way to salvage the mess left by Collingwood? Indentifying the sport’s answer to Wayne Bennett would be a start, writes Lisa Alexander.

Netball must have two teams in Melbourne if the sport is to survive the growing threat of AFLW.

The sad demise of Collingwood from Super Netball is the result of major problems in the sport at many levels, none of which we have time to fully dissect right now, because time is against us.

Super Netball must have eight teams for a competition and while there is talk of places like Tasmania or Bendigo taking up the licence, the reality is the new team must be in Melbourne.

Two teams in Melbourne are imperative, a “no-brainer”, not only because the broadcaster wants it but that it makes sporting business sense with the facilities and population in the city. 

With the demise of Collingwood, a new Super Netball team must still be based in Melbourne. Picture: Getty Images

NO TIME TO WASTE

The team will need to be mustered quickly and so a GM of Netball and a Head Coach needs to be appointed in the immediate future to start planning and building a high performance battle plan.

The coach must be experienced, world class and internationally focused for the ability to attract world class netballers and create a world class program. Obviously with a focus on Victorian talent.

The GM will need to have experienced credentials and perhaps experience from another sport as well as netball.

We have let a lot of our talent in the sport go to other industries or sports for greater opportunities — let’s bring some of them back.

I’d be more than willing to get involved if they want an experienced coach or if they want help identifying and assembling a team to get a start-up off the ground.

Look at the success of Wayne Bennett at the Dolphins in the NRL. You can’t risk expansion, especially one with such a short turnaround, with staff in any key roles lacking experience.

Lisa Alexander would be willing to help out a new Victorian Super Netball franchise.

COLLABORATION IS A MUST

Netball Victoria and the Vixens need to co-operate to make this work. The future of the game in Victoria is under threat.

Netball Victoria, the jewel in the Australian Netball Crown a few years ago, has slipped considerably.

In the recently announced Australian Fast 5 Youth team for the Commonwealth Youth Games it was spruiked from Victoria that Elissa Kent was the coach and Mia Lavis was in the team.

I am thrilled for both of them, but just one athlete from Victoria?

Queensland has three players, NSW, South Australia and Western Australia each had two.

This would have Joyce Brown (legendary Australian and Victorian Coach) asking questions of the Netball Victoria Board.

Netball Victoria’s two junior Nationals teams the U17s and the U19s, both finished fourth at the titles recently in Darwin and someone blamed Covid for the dip in performance?

No, that is taking your eyes off the farm and just enjoying the harvest of Vixens without the toil of preparing the soil and fertilising the pathways.

There is now more opportunity for young girls to pursue AFLW careers than Super Netball and Victoria is a key battleground for that talent.

AFLW is a growing threat to netball.

Two teams not only make sense from a business point of view but also from a NV pathway point of view and the equal sharing of prized resources, such as access to the participant database to bring fans to games, must be front and centre of the development of the new team.

This includes VIS support to both teams equally through the arrangement it has with Netball Victoria. This has been done before when Melbourne Phoenix and Melbourne Kestrels were instigated back in 1997.

Victoria has a brand new high performance centre in Parkville, yes we still share with hockey, but the two netball teams could immediately share training facilities here like their sisters do in NSW with the Swifts and Giants.

The new team could play out of the State Netball and Hockey Centre and build towards matches every week at John Cain Arena alongside the Vixens.

A small regional centre while extremely important, is not the right fit for our world class competition.

This is abundance theory, not divide and conquer of the past. 

Everyone needs to step up their game in this state to ensure this is successful, including Netball Australia’s overseeing and strategy role.

Netball Victoria will need to be Switzerland like they were supposed to be back in 2007 at the end of the CBT competition.

That will require adjustments from Vixens as well, and will impact them as a team and a club.

But for the good of the game in Victoria and Australia, this is the only solution.

A second Melbourne team alongside the Vixens would be good for the game in Victoria. Picture: Getty Images

TEAM NAME

This is a crossroads moment for netball. The decisions made now will impact and shape the sport’s future.

As a sport maybe we needed this divine intervention. A forced reset.

Welcome to the Melbourne Angels — the newest club in the SSN which will be a lean mean fighting machine.

I have colours picked out (but that is getting ahead too quickly), think royal blue and pink for the colour of our Victorian state flower, the pink heath.

This will be a heavenly experience for all.

With the population growth in Melbourne, the network of netball participants and the opportunity ahead for Australia’s most popular women’s sport, even the greatest investor of all Warren Buffett would think this is an investment worth making.

It’s time ... change is coming, are you on the netball abundance train or not?

Originally published as Lisa Alexander: How Super Netball can salvage itself after Collingwood withdrawal