Australian Diamonds to play South Africa in Tassie
Fresh off their win at the Netball World Cup, the Australian Diamonds will make more history in the coming months with Tasmania set to be part of it. Full details.
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The Australian Diamonds will create more history when they arrive in Tasmania later this year.
Netball Australia has announced the Diamonds will play two matches on October 29 and 31 against South Africa as part of a three-match series at MyState Bank Arena.
The Diamonds will also play in Cairns, on October 25, for the first time to open the series.
It will be the first opportunity for Diamonds fans to see the two teams compete following the 2023 Netball World Cup in Cape Town.
“We can’t wait to play in Cairns and Hobart for the first time in the history of the Diamonds,” head coach Stacey Marinkovich said.
“We didn’t come up against South Africa at the recent Netball World Cup, so we’re looking forward to the challenge in this series.
“The Diamonds last played South Africa in a stand-alone series in 2005 and we’re excited to play them in front of a home crowd for the first time in 18 years.”
Minister for Stadia and Events Nic Street confirmed that it would cost taxpayers $500,000 for the two games with community outreach programs also set to be run by Netball Australia and Netball Tasmania in the lead-up to the games.
“We know netball is a fantastic participation sport here in Tasmania and we know bringing these games here will do more to enhance the profile of the sport going forward,” Mr Street said.
With Netball Tasmania throwing its hat in the ring for a Super Netball licence earlier this year before withdrawing from the race, Minister Street said the government was very much still invested in securing one in the future.
“We know that Netball Tasmania is interested in fielding a team in the Super Netball competition, as are we as a government, but the opporuntity for an eighth licence just came around too quickly,” he said.
“But we are absolutely ready for conversations with any sport that wants us to be apart of a national competition going forward and games like this are an opportunity to show that we are interested in high level content.”
Netball Australia CEO Kelly Ryan added that while strong attendances wouldn’t automatically result in Tasmania joining the national competition at some stage, she said it coudn’t be underestimated what the power of patrons voting with their feet could do.
“I don’t think you can underestimate showing support at every opportunity that you are given and what that can do for the game going forward,” Ryan said.
“Obviously there are no commitments to the future of what the league looks like but we appreciate there is certainly interest (from Tasmania).”
Ryan said that while the governing body certainly had discussions with both Netball Tasmania and the Tasmanian government around the eighth Super Netball licence, they felt that there was “a few significant challenges” that stood in the way of the states’ entry with the short-time frame one of those.
The South Africa series follows the 2023 Constellation Cup, to be held in Melbourne on October 12 and Brisbane on October 15.
Tickets will go on sale for the South Africa series to Super Netball club members and Netball Nation subscribers on Monday, August 14 at 11am.
General public tickets will be on sale from 11am on Tuesday, August 15 through Ticketek.
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