The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Failure to acknowledge Australian victory a sad reality

Roar Rookie
18th August, 2015
Advertisement
Can the Diamonds repeat their World Cup heroics in the Constellation Cup? (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)
Roar Rookie
18th August, 2015
31
1191 Reads

The Australian expectation is that athletes will always perform at the top of their game when representing their country.

This expectation doesn’t change whether you are performing in front of millions of fans, or in front of 5000 people in an arena with no media broadcast.

With the same performance expectations, it seems unfair that sports deemed ‘minor’ by Australian broadcasters standards don’t receive the opportunity to increase their coverage, fan-base and funding in comparison to major sports.

Same effort should equate to the same response.

As a journalist for the recent 2015 Netball World Cup in Sydney, which wrapped up on Sunday with an epic 58-55 win by the reigning champions, the Australian Diamonds, I was in awe of the passion and enthusiasm of the 100,000 spectators who came to watch international netball.

Netball followers are fanatics. They are there to show their love for their team and sport, not there for the social media credibility and an opportunity to check-in at the SCG, or for a #nofilter Instagram post.

With minimal broadcast deals and sponsorship for the Netball World Cup, the athletes, organisations and individual teams relied on social media to interact with their fans.

The Netball World Cup has 55,000 Facebook followers and pumped out over 30 posts a day. Their 20,000 Instagram followers enjoyed around 20 posts daily.

Advertisement

Their 14,000 Twitter followers received close to 100 posts a day with quarterly score updates for every game, injury information, match highlights, photos and fan packages.

A media and communications team of around 20 worked long hours to get this information out for the fans and to promote the sport. Yet people in Australia, and Sydney specifically, still didn’t know the event existed.

Fox Sports and Channel Ten had the media rights for the event, yet one has to use the search bar and actively look for the Netball World Cup to find any information on their website, as cricket, rugby and serial dating shows dominate the home pages.

How can netball as a growing female sport develop when their major media sponsor aren’t giving them the advertising space? While Jarryd Hayne’s first game of American football is important, is it more important than an Australian team winning their 11th world title in front of a world record breaking crowd?

A game once considered for the ‘softer’ sex is seeing harder clashes, tougher fights and greater examples of stamina and endurance than ever before. What some of the players lack in height – the tallest player of the tournament Jhaniele Fowler-Reid of Jamaica, at 198 centimetres, came up against players at 160 centimetres – they are forced to make up in stamina and intimidation.

Australian mid-court player Kimberly Green told The Australian Woman’s Weekly that she does 11 gym sessions a week, plus deep-water running once a week and her training with the Diamonds on top of that.

“Tomorrow morning we will put in an early morning session,” South African goal shooter, Lenize Potgeiter said after her team’s 68-40 victory over Wales on Day 6 of the tournament.

Advertisement

“I hope it’s not fitness.” They were coming up against Australia the following evening, but a rest in the morning before the tough battle was not even a thought that crossed the athlete’s mind.

Potgeiter played in every game South Africa contested in the tournament, in every quarter bar one. She played in 405 minutes giving 100 per cent physical effort. And she is only 21 years of age.

Netball players are tougher and more ruthless than ever before, yet aren’t getting the recognition they deserve.

The action and atmosphere at the Netball World Cup was remarkable. The performance of the athletes would not have improved if it was in front of a crowd of millions because the athletes gave it their all.

All Australian athletes should have the recognition they deserve and the opportunity to increase their fan-base, media coverage and sponsorship deals.

Australian broadcast organisations need to stop playing it safe and giving space to the sports with guaranteed viewers, but promote all fierce Australian athletes on an equal platform, celebrating all national achievements.

close