Class and theatre of Australian netball is unfairly under-appreciated

Sitting down to watch the netball grand final on Sunday, I was apprehensive. I’d never watched a full game of professional netball before.

How would it compare to the other great Australian grand finals of the past? One thing I was aware of was though the stakes at play.

The Firebirds’ third attempt to avoid being the bridesmaids.

The Swifts scraping into the Aussie conference finals.

The State of Origin vibe attached to the game added flavour, and helped stop my NSW Blues spirit cravings. Already, the drama was enough to make this sports fan salivate. And my taste buds were supremely satisfied.

It’s already been hailed by netball greats and other Roarers as one of the most action-packed, nerve racking, epic finals in history.

But for the Aussie sports fanatic or casual sports fan who is unfamiliar with netball and/or fails to recognise netball as in the same league as Australia’s football codes, let me break it down into some of the characters that were on show on Sunday. They personified some of the great stories that Australian sporting folklore already acknowledges.

Firstly, from the Swifts there was Julie Corletto. In the third quarter she copped an elbow to the nose while defending her goal. Play was halted and Liz Ellis suggested that not even a broken nose would stop Corletto. Less than 10 minutes later, Corletto was tumbling out of court and sustained a knee injury that drew blood as well. For a non-contact sport, it drew parallels to Sam Burgess’ injury in the NRL grand final last year. The sheer toughness was outstanding.

Next, we have Gretel Tippett. AFL fans will be familiar with that last name. Despite being quiet in front of goal for majority of the match (like her brother is accused of doing by AFL critics), she produced the match-winner with 15 seconds left. As a former AIS basketballer, this code-hopping hero was lauded as the x-factor for the Firebirds in the lead-up to the game. Her lay-up shots and unique skill set drew applause as well as critique. But like Israel Folau’s journeyman story, it was Tippett who had the last laugh.

Queenslanders adore their club captains who are ice cool under pressure. James Horwill, Darren Lockyer, Cameron Smith to name a few. Now you can add Laura Geitz to that list. The Firebirds were left shell-shocked at halftime, as memories of their previous grand final flops came back to haunt them. Geitz led from the back and her team bravely followed suit. She summed up the team performance in a post-match interview that had changed the Firebird’s mindset “That’s this team in a nutshell – in the pressure moments, never give up.”

Lastly, what would an epic grand final like this be without a LeBron James-style player? Christened in the lead up to the game as the ‘LeBron of netball’, Romelda Aiken lived up to the hype. The season’s leading goal scorer brought her A-game to the final, shooting an incredible 47 goals from 51 attempts. The comparison to LeBron ends with one simple fact; Aiken carried her team to championship glory this year whereas he could not.

And yes that last comparison may seem a bit biased, but Australians should be singing the praises of this netball game; our own homegrown (with Kiwi assistance) gem, rather than jumping on the bandwagon of the NBA.

I agree that in terms of world attention and sporting folklore, the NBA has the ANZ Championship’s measure. But for character, theatre and atmosphere the two were evenly matched.

Locally, it is a shame the national consciousness will glaze over the events of the netball final, when its relevance to Australia far outweighs that of the NBA.

Sure, we had Aussies Andrew Bogut and Matthew Dellavedova competing, but while not taking away anything from these guys, the general Australian public will struggle to remember these guys’ name by this time next year.

Delly’s performance had an air of Ashton Agar’s Test cricket debut to it (one-hit wonder who couldn’t claim the ultimate prize), and while Bogut now has a championship ring, I doubt whether his Finals series contribution will warrant a seat on The Project like Patty Mills and reserve player Aron Baynes.

The fact is Australia’s connection to the NBA this year was a flash in the pan, while the Swifts-Firebirds final was one of the most drama filled, hard fought grand finals in Australian history. Not women’s sport history. National archives, spine-tingling sports history.

In short, netball deserves more of our national attention.

The netball marketers brilliantly used the ‘play like a girl’ theme attached to the stereotype around women and sport to their advantage. With the Netball World Cup coming up in August, netball’s spotlight will grow brighter heading into the back half of the year.

Maybe netball administrators need to re-think the finals format, and possibly place the grand final in a primetime TV spot. That will get the media and Australians up and about.

After all, Australians deserve to watch a quality, Aussie-grown final where post-match interviews don’t have betting updates, questions on the amount of alcohol to be consumed later and use of the words ‘youse’ and ‘yeah nah’.

If the netball grand final has one thing going for it, it’s definitely class.