The gritty detail in Netball Australia’s strategic plan that will provide roadmap for success
Netball Australia’s 10-year strategic plan outlines a bold vision for the sport which will take it to the promised land. But is there meat on the bones to back up the aspiration?
Bluff and bluster or a genuine road map towards longevity as a top-tier sport on the Australian landscape?
Netball Australia officially launched its 10-year strategic plan – Made in Netball – in Sydney on Tuesday, with a raft of big, bold statements that could be seen as hot air.
Double the sport’s community; entrench Super Netball as Australia’s most popular women’s sports league; have the Diamonds become the most-recognised national women’s sports team.
Be the gold standard of sports administration; create a framework that increases the participation and success of First Nations participants; develop a data strategy to grow and support the game and its fan base.
These are all admirable – and lofty – goals. Netball is often pilloried for its “here if you need” meekness.
Made in Netball is full of aspiration and unapologetic ambition. It’s what most who understand the potential power of the country’s biggest sport for women and girls have been begging for.
But strategic plans can be the home of blue sky bluster. The devil is in the detail.
And the detail in NA’s plan is strong.
There have been critics of quite how long it’s taken to deliver but Netball Australia has ensured every stakeholder has had the chance to contribute and be heard, data collected to back up goals and each ambitious target broken down into manageable steps to ensure there is a detailed way forward to reach the goals.
It’s an important point. The netball family has not always been a united one.
But everyone now has had their say and if a sport boasting one of the biggest footprints in the country is to achieve its full potential – as a high performance force, a community juggernaut and a breeding ground for the next generation of female leaders “Made in Netball” – it has to act in unison.
NA chair Liz Ellis and CEO Stacey West were adamant the sport’s next road map would be highly consultative with “the entire netball ecosystem” to give confidence to stakeholders, investors, partners and sponsors that there was a clear plan to go with the big ideas.
“We could’ve written a strategic plan for 10 years and just handed it out to everyone and said, ‘There you go that’s what we’re going to do’ but that actually doesn’t change the dial,” Ellis said.
“It’s really important that you don’t put the ambition out there and go, “How are we going to achieve it? I don’t know.’
“For us, it’s really important to be ambitious but to also say how we’re going to do it.
“And Netball Australia can’t just do it by itself. It’s going to take all of the member bodies, all of the team owners, all of grassroots to really lean in and deliver the growth that we need to do.
“We’re all in this together. Let’s work now to grow the game.”
Around its strategic principles of growing and excelling netball, deepening community connection and audience engagement and amplifying netball’s impact and legacy, there are detailed sub-plans to achieve success.
Leveraging data and technology will be among the biggest drivers for the sport, with plans to capture and share participant data between member organisations and the national body, exploring opportunities for the secure use of AI, establishing a fan data platform and mobile apps, including a Super Netball app.
It’s an overdue focus to help reduce the disconnect between the grassroots and elite level of the sport that has, at times, hindered netball’s ability to harness its massive numbers and become a real behemoth.
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Originally published as The gritty detail in Netball Australia’s strategic plan that will provide roadmap for success
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