I have an idea for the ARU as to how the players can get paid and yet still receive some kind of shot to the system as to what it is supposed to mean when you represent your country.
Pay them half their match payment and force them to attend a mandatory seminar on “love of the game”, then pay the other half of the fee to the hosts of the seminar.
My choice for the hosts would be the Australian Netball team, in an extension of the trial match concept between the probables and possibles of the Diamonds.
The fourteen women that run out onto the court for that trial match can lay very strong claims to being far superior at their chosen sport than the fifteen men who took the field for the Bledisloe.
Not just because they are consistently successful, which is in stark contrast to the Wallabies, but because across every state of Australia, the chosen sporting code for Australian women is netball.
For these women to play at a representative level, each player has had to beat out the best athletes that the entire population of their city, then their state and finally their country has to offer.
Being the best in NSW and Queensland doesn’t guarantee them a game, being the best private school player in your city possibly doesn’t even get you into a local rep side, and there is little chance they can rely on their arch rival focusing on cricket.
Consider that up until recently these women were still amateurs toiling away in relative obscurity to their male counterparts who, in comparison to the population, are less talented.
They didn’t request four figure payments in order to push claims to represent their country like it was a contractual right. Instead, they dipped into their own pockets to have the opportunity to run into an arena wearing green and gold.
Even now under the guise of a professional league, netballers are still largely amatuer. Matt Giteau could run three entire netball clubs on his rumoured salary and still have more than enough left over to live a luxurious life.
Perhaps after seeing the amount of effort put in for sums that wouldn’t get them to show up to the training paddock, the current Wallabies may garner the smallest amount of perspective on how far detached they’ve become from the country they supposedly represent.
But who am I kidding?
They’d probably just text their mates about some room full of sporty chicks, have a laugh, and check out after 10 minutes. After all, that’s what they did during the Tri Nations.
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