Netball news: Annie Miller encourages players to hold firm in dispute with Netball Australia

In just a few weeks Annie Miller went from being a professional athlete to unemployed without a home — and despite all that she has no doubts about the players’ stance in the pay dispute.

She ended her lease early, was effectively living out of her car just weeks ago, has moved in with her partner’s family and took on a full-time job in a bid to make ends meet.

Annie Miller is the face of netball’s protracted and increasingly poisonous pay dispute.

Miller has been informed she will not be offered a contract for next season by the Sunshine Coast Lightning, with whom she played last season and had hoped to turn out again next year.

The news came just days before the Collective Players Agreement (CPA) lapsed at the end of last month and has left Miller in an unenviable position – not just out of contract but now unemployed as an athlete.

The 22-year-old is juggling work and study in a bid to pay her bills as Netball Australia (NA) and the Australian Netball Players Association (ANPA) continue to be at loggerheads over a new deal.

Despite being shattered at the news she will not be offered a new contract – and with few options remaining despite the official signing window having not even opened yet – Miller knows she’s just one of many players in a similar situation.

And perhaps surprisingly given her situation, she’s right behind ANPA and the players in their fight for a better deal.

“I totally believe that we deserve, as players, to be true partners in the game,” she said.

“And I think that we’re not being taken seriously with what we’re asking for, and I do believe that what we are asking for is within what Netball Australia can provide.

Annie Miller says the players deserve to be treated better. Picture: Getty Images

“Despite me probably bearing the brunt of it all, I also know that I’ve been in it (full-time) for two seasons now and the players deserve better.

“And all my friends are still paying and they deserve better, and I’ll be in the environment somewhat and training partners deserve better.

“I do believe that we’re asking for what is right and we want to be taken seriously as key stakeholders in the game.”

While the Super Netball signing window usually opens just a week after the grand final – a date that would have been in early July – Miller was among players left in limbo for months in what she said was a “tough, tough experience”.

She was eventually told just over four weeks ago that she wouldn’t be offered a spot in the Lightning’s full-time squad.

“(That) was devastating and pretty unexpected,” said Miller, who like every Super Netball player became officially unemployed on September 30.

“I think that it was a little late in the game to be given that news but at the same time, none of the clubs have been set up for success to do this in the right way.

“I know there have been a few perspectives that have been shared from other players but I think that it’s good that someone like me is now able to give their version of events.

Annie Miller was devastated to be cut from the Lightning. Picture: Kelly Defina/Getty Images

“I feel like it’s the players that are not sure they’re going to get recontracted – I know for a fact some people are still being told it could be a yes, it might be a no – and all of us that are on the lower wage bracket, the players on the fringe, they are really the people who it probably has affected the most.”

Anticipating a breakdown in negotiations that would lead to a period without pay, Miller and Lightning clubmates with whom she was living ended their lease early in a bid to save money.

She and partner, ironman Cooper Williams, have moved in with his brother and Miller has taken a job “just out of desperation” to pay the bills.

“That’s not unique to people who are not being recontracted because (those who are) are not being paid at the moment either,” she said.

“That will be a long-term thing for me going from having a salary to not, so it’s looking like for me that training partner position will be where I land.”

That would push Miller, who is also juggling physiotherapy studies, into a situation in which she’s paid a stipend of about $5000 per season to train while being unable to play unless a full-time squad member is injured or ill.

“So all these other things come into play where I have to have to consider whether I move back to Sydney or stay here (in Queensland) where I’m still doing my uni – and then thinking about what load at uni that I’ll have to do and how that will fit in with trying to work to pay rent and groceries and also be in that training environment,” she said.

“Training partners, I’ve done it for one season with the Giants, and it’s the toughest gig.

“You’re getting pulled in so many different directions – and of course you want to be in the environment as much as you can so that you’re seen and you’re improving.

“So it’s really a double-edged sword because it’s not paying the bills but if you’re not there, you’re never going to progress.”

It’s been a massively stressful experience for Miller and athletes like her on the fringe of full-time lists.

“Most of my emotion is coming from not being able to play but it has become about more than just netball,” she said.

“It’s about people’s livelihoods and their mental health and the amount of stress that this has caused me and I’m sure many other people. It almost makes you think, ‘Is it all worth it?’

“(Everyone’s been under) immense stress. And being female athletes and particularly netballers, we aren’t paid big bucks already anyway.”

Miller could be expected to be bitter but that’s not her way.

A light has appeared in the previously dark tunnel in the form of an association with the Australian Cricketers’ Association, which has created a fund to help the netballers continue their fight towards becoming partners in their sport.

And while official mediation is set to occur between NA and ANPA, Miller has encouraged her mates to hold firm in their battle for partnership.

“You want those decisions to be made but also, all this hard work, you don’t want it to go out the window just so that we can move forward because then it feels like everything would have been in vain,” she said.

“I can’t speak for everybody but I think it would be disappointing now, after everything we’ve gone through, just to sign on the dotted line so that we can move forward.

“At this point, it’s bigger than just me and other players that would be in my position.

“Yes, we are the ones that have probably been most affected by it but at the same time, there are 80 contracts and all of those girls would have been affected by it in a different way.

“And every single one of them does deserve better.”

Miller may not play next year but she hopes that if and when she’s back on a full-time list, she’s a beneficiary of everything for which she’s now fighting.

“Even though I now have to take a sideways step to potentially keep going forward, and it’s really disappointing for me, they do say that things like this can be the best thing that’s ever happened to you,’’ she said.

“Hopefully, if the deal ends up being done right, I’ll get repaid down the track.”

Originally published as Netball news: Annie Miller encourages players to hold firm in dispute with Netball Australia