Netball’s clean image hurts our media coverage
Roar Rookie By Natalie Medhurst, 2 Apr 2009 Natalie Medhurst is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- ANZ Championship, Natalie medhurst, netball
Pull on those netball dresses, tie up your shoes and strap in, for what can only possibly be another exciting season in the ANZ Championship.
With the first whistle being blown on Saturday, as the Melbourne Vixens take on the West Coast Fever, this season should promise to continue both the interstate and trans – tasman rivalries as well as continue to increase netball as a sport that is one to be watched.
The creation of the new competition in 2008 saw the sport move into semi-professionalism, giving players greater monetary reward as well as increased exposure for their skill and dedication to the game, whilst giving spectators the opportunity to witness champion athletes and countries compete against each other, week in – week out.
And yet, despite the intense competition, the flair, skill and speed that the game produces, the game itself still tends to get lost in the background of every other sport… at least here in Australia.
Our trans-tasman rivals receive the recognition and media coverage that we here in Australia could only dream of.
Perhaps it’s the fact that the Kiwi’s aren’t as strong in other sports and have less to compete against, maybe they have more female news editors allowing female sports to be recognised, but whatever the reason may be, they do not need to compete for media space as much as the teams here in Australia.
Unlike Australia, where sport dominates our culture with the likes of AFL, League, Union, Cricket, Swimming, Soccer, Tennis and V8 supercars, netball tends to find it difficult to make the ‘cut’.
Whilst I will point out the fact that all these sports are dominated by males, surely this doesn’t mean that netball and other female sports don’t stand a chance of getting the recognition that they too deserve?
Although coverage of netball has increased dramatically over the past 12 months, more so in particular states than others, it is still a long way off the pace as every other sporting code appears to get bigger each year and netball just cannot appear to catch up!
Does the issue lie with that fact that netballers continue to remain clean cut, respectable, hard working and highly skilled athletes just as they always have been?
In order to survive and continue to grow in this sporting country, surely netballers and the clubs they represent don’t need to have stories of players getting in to altercations in bars, urinating in public, getting busted for drink driving as well as taking illegal substances in order to create some sort of media coverage and frenzy!
Or is it this kind of behaviour, which is the stuff that drives media coverage and, as a result create greater interest in a sport? I hope not.
So, as the netball season is once again upon us, may netball become the “hottest sport in town” and a game that gets coverage for all the right reasons, and not the wrong ones!
Recommend this story.
- Explore:
- ANZ Championship, Natalie medhurst, netball
April 2nd 2009 @ 10:25am
Redb said | April 2nd 2009 @ 10:25am | Report comment
Be careful of what you wish for. Bad behaviour is not exactly sponsor friendly.
Redb
April 2nd 2009 @ 10:31am
True Tah said | April 2nd 2009 @ 10:31am | Report comment
Onside
foxtel would pay more than the ABC would.
April 2nd 2009 @ 12:13pm
Ian Jessup said | April 2nd 2009 @ 12:13pm | Report comment
You also have to wonder what our netball authorities are up to – late last year when they decided to brand the Australian team as “The Diamonds” the accompanying press release mentioned the word ‘feminine’ three or four times.
The tone of the release beggared belief – is Netball Australia paranoid that mug punters will equate elite women’s sport with homosexuality?
It sounded like the CWA battening down the hatches in fear of an avalanche of biker chicks with short haircuts and men’s Levis!
Perhaps Natalie can enlighten us to the thinking of Netball Australia? Sounds like Flowers in the Attic.
I know from dealing with the women’s hockey team at the Sydney Olympics that roughly 1/4 of the squad of 24 were gay – but it didn’t matter to anyone, thanks in part to the forward thinking coach Ric Charlesworth. They were a professional unit devoted to achieveing their personal best, which they did.
April 2nd 2009 @ 1:39pm
Hammer said | April 2nd 2009 @ 1:39pm | Report comment
“Perhaps it’s the fact that the Kiwi’s aren’t as strong in other sports and have less to compete against, maybe they have more female news editors allowing female sports to be recognised, but whatever the reason may be, they do not need to compete for media space as much as the teams here in Australia.”
Poor call – it’s because NZ takes pride in ALL it’s sporting team regardless of gender … apart from AFL, NZ males have the all those sports mentioned in this piece to occupy them .. but they also enjoy netball and why wouldn’t you
April 4th 2009 @ 2:43pm
Paul said | April 4th 2009 @ 2:43pm | Report comment
Natalie.
Having lived in both countries, it is quite evident that New Zealanders are alot more open to supporting female sports than their counterparts in Australia. Your claim that New Zealanders are possibly not as successful in other sports or that there isnt the variety of sports to compete with is rubbish. Is it quite in fact the opposite.
Womens sport is celebrated in New Zealand and if you spend enough time there, you would probably notice that the participation rate in womens team sport eclipses that of Autralias. In fact in the Hillary report 2001 it was noted that less than 14% of females in New Zealand exercised less than 30 minutes per day on average. On the 30 minute nightly news, sport is reported for half the segment.
This is perhaps the reason. Just my opinion.
April 4th 2009 @ 3:35pm
Millster said | April 4th 2009 @ 3:35pm | Report comment
While Pippinu’s post was somewhat in jest, I can’t help but alsocome to his conclusion in terms of “something of extremely high value to sell” combined, Natalie, with your own last line of “the hottest sport in town”.
For me, “hot” is the way it needs to go. And people should not be scared of the controlled sexualisation of a sport – a ‘deliberate infamy’ which is not at all the same as drunken loutish behaviour of individuals in the male football codes. To me, the possibility of seeing a sport played at elite level in which the ‘eye candy’ factor is not shied away from is an interesting marketing exercise. Especially when countless girls (and guys through mixed comp) play the game socially and can relate to some extent.
Now I’m 100% aware that this is not a politically correct suggestion, and in fact I also remember your first column here Natalie which was exactly on the unfairness of the sexualisation of sports and differing perceptions when girls and guys are involved.
But taking those sensitivities away and thinking purely as a rational business strategist, if I ask myself the question “what real competitive advantage does netball have”, the answer lands every time on the fact that it is a quality game played by what are (and could be even more) some sexy sexy people. I think the game wants to take beach volleyball’s mantle over in this respect, and then go even further… really push the boundaries of what the mainstream demographic will be comfortable with.
April 14th 2009 @ 2:53pm
Greg Russell said | April 14th 2009 @ 2:53pm | Report comment
I am like Paul in having lived in both Australia and New Zealand. Having been here for the last 15 years, I can say that netballers over here are every bit as squeaky clean as in Australia, probably cleaner (having a family will get them into the women’s magazines). The closest there has been to controversy that I can remember is that Temepara George was in a relationship with Sione Faumuina, a bad boy of New Zealand rugby league. In other words, no controversy.
So the greater popularity of netball in New Zealand is nothing to do with off-court incidents attracting publicity.
My conclusion is that it is mostly a cultural thing; who am I to explain cultural differences?
I think there is also an aspect of Australia being much bigger, meaning there is much more (high-level) male sport, and therefore much more such news to fill the sporting pages. Thus netball isn’t needed to fill these pages in Australia. But in New Zealand there is no AFL, there is only one NRL team, one A-League team, and so on. It follows that there is more room for netball.
Finally, we need to be honest and admit that sex sells in sport (e.g. see Millster’s comment ““hot” is the way it needs to go”). Here again it is hard to explain the disparity in interest between the two countries. The boys on RadioSport NZ reckon that a particular Australian team is the “hottest” in the ANZ competition (I won’t say which in case Natalie is reading!). My wife commented to me last night that a lot of the NZ players had slimmed down but they still didn’t have the bodies of the Australian players.
June 9th 2009 @ 9:07pm
Darryl said | June 9th 2009 @ 9:07pm | Report comment
I really hope one day Aus and NZ combine cricket comps like netball. That would get me back into cricket again.
September 15th 2009 @ 2:16pm
Steve said | September 15th 2009 @ 2:16pm | Report comment
Its not “Netball’s clean image hurts our media coverage”. Its the fact that its as boring as buggery. The poor man’s, sorry, the poor woman’s Basketball.Could they possibly blow the whistle another 693731 times during the game.
But on the plus side, more Australian would take a passing interest in International Netball than care about the NSW/QLD combined union side.
October 13th 2009 @ 1:33pm
Republican said | October 13th 2009 @ 1:33pm | Report comment
Basically NZ would turn out in numbers to watch a staring face off if it were pitted against Oz.
Having said that, I believe the ANZ series gets very good patronage from the Australian sporting public and yes, the media are male and footy centric in particular, in this country, but no more so than across the ditch, it’s just that international sporting achievements are far more integral to NZ’s cultural self image than here in Australia and this cringe like fervour is exploited by its media in that respect.
Netball is a great game which I have grown to appreciate more since my daughter started playing two years ago. I cant say however, i am that enamoured with the new format which was launced in Manchester last week under the guise of ‘The World Series’.
This could well be in response to Netball losing alot of its grassroots to Soccer in particular. My daughter was certainly incensed by the concept and quite correctly drew analogies with Basketball. I do hope they dont compromise the game to the extent that the hype dictates as has been the case in Cricket going ga ga over T20.