Photo courtesy of Lochnagarth via www.flickr.com
A few days ago Netball Australia’s CEO, Kate Palmer, argued that female athletes need to stop blaming the media for lack of coverage of female sports and look to their sport’s governing body to redress the problem. Her comments follow an article by Melissa Barbieri, captain of the Australian Women’s soccer team (aka the Matildas), complaining about hypocrisy in the media. I agree that each sport is responsible for building its own brand and making itself newsworthy. But what happens when you do that, as I believe netball has done, and your sport is still ignored by the media? As I’ve argued before netball seems invisible to mainstream media. Continue reading 'How can netball and other female sports get more media attention?'»
Samoa sub with WD paddle. Photo courtesy of Steve from www.playnetball.com
The inaugural World Netball Series featured a modified version of netball, or Fast Net as IFNA calls it. There are hopes that this version of netball will help the bid for netball to be included in the Olympics, although it won’t make the cut for 2012.
IFNA promised a ‘fast, ferocious and vibrant competition’ and it probably delivered on that score, but isn’t netball already fast and dynamic? For all its innovations, can the Fast Net style of netball compete with the thrilling encounters provided by international tests, the ANZ Championships or the Co-operative Superleague? There were many drastic rule changes, but will any of them be adopted into the traditional form of netball? Some of the main differences between both forms of the game were:
- shorter quarters – instead of the usual 15 minutes, quarters were only 6 minutes long so each team had to play their best netball from the outset, conditions similar to playing in a regular 0ne-day tournament. This can lead to rather frantic, error-strewn play as teams try to quickly find their rhythm. However, a regular netball match is only one hour long so is there any real need to shorten the game?
- double points for shots scored from outside the circle – this change certainly got the crowd excited as every time anyone got the ball on the circle edge, whether they were a shooter or not, the crowd was shouting “shoot, shoot!” A fun concept but would it be taking netball back too close to its basketball roots?
- Power Play quarter – the idea of doubling any points scored in this quarter also livened up the game but if both team use this option at the same time, the potential bonuses for either team could be negated.
- rolling subs – this rule change will probably find its way into the regular form of netball, at least at the top levels. Some elite coaches already feel the current rules on substitutions are too restrictive. Continue reading 'World Netball Series: Did it deliver the “wow” factor?'»
Picture courtesy of Lochnagarth
This post was going to be about the recent Co-Operative World Netball Series tournament but after reading some rather ill-advised comments about netball we felt the need to post a response. A keen-eyed netball fan spotted the article in last Friday’s edition of the London Evening Standard, written by respected journalist and BBC TV presenter, John Inverdale. The online version can be found here, just after the piece about Wasps Rugby Club.
Credit where credit’s due; Mr Inverdale is at least writing about netball, and in an established newspaper. However, his comments have landed him in hot water with netball fans around the globe. Judging by his comments, he’s never actually played netball before and he’s all but branded it as being dull. Apparently, it just too easy to score in netball and this makes the game ‘repetitious and unfulfilling’. These comments followed an afternoon spent watching the top 6 teams in the world play a drastically modified version of the game at the World Netball Series in Manchester.
Continue reading 'Is it too easy to score in netball?'»
Australia v England Netball Test - Adelaide, October 2008. Photo courtesy of paddynapper
The Co-operative World Netball Series will debut at the M.E.N Arena in Manchester from the 9 -11th October. The new format will challenge the fitness, technical ability and tactical awareness of the best players in the world according to IFNA, netball’s governing body. IFNA has invested a great deal of time over the last 12 months developing their Fast Net format which they consider innovative, with the hope of attracting new participants and broadening netball’s international fan base.
IFNA promises a ‘fast, ferocious and vibrant competition’ that will feature some of the world’s best players from the top six netball nations – currently Australia, England, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand and Samoa – and are treating this as an opportunity to showcase netball to the world.
Continue reading 'World Netball Series: What’s it all about?'»
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