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.
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.
“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.
The artist formerly known as Punter
Guest
Bang on Brendon!!!!
Mad Mick
Guest
I think the NZ thing is a bit stale.
Carrol brown
Guest
Keep your Eyes out Jason there is a 4 match test series between NZ and Aus coming up in November I think. It will be fast and furious. Hope you love it
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
I think netball suffers from the lack of 'sexyness' of the contenders. Whether we like it or not, beating Malawi, Wales or even NZ in most sports does not sell papers. Replace those nations with the usa, germany or russia and suddenly everyone's listening. The netball world is a small, commonwealth only sport and I guess big sponsors who want worldwide exposure may prefer to invest in other sports. But as a sport, I agree that it sure has its merits as it really involves all members of the team.
Mad Mick
Guest
I have a real problem with the " tougher and ruthless" tag. If we want tougher and ruthless then there are plenty of rugby players who can provide it. I'm more for the grace and style and femininity please.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Since you're such an expert, why is it that all these 'blokes' are on a sports site and there is a lack of women?
Netball dad
Guest
seriously, that's not a metric of anything other than a poor opinion reeking of sexism, which does you no favours. The Roar's editor should be congratulated for finding Megan Maurice and allowing her to write funny and passionate yet insightful blog posts on netball during the world cup - at least it's a start. Georgia's article also hits the spot and needed to be written and the Roar should be congratulated for running it. The Roar shouldn't be a 'blokes' site, nor should it be a 'chicks' site - it should be for everyone. Naturally, the editors have to meet commercial considerations in covering the major sports but the paradigm of defining a major sport by the amount of column inches or airtime devoted to it is already being destroyed by digital disruption. If the editor of the Roar has any sense, and there's plenty of evidence to suggest he does, he will go after female readers but not just doubling or tripling netball content but also deliberately going for women's soccer, women's basketball with targeted content, sourcing great writers, and building new sections. He also needs content on the great female surfers of Australia - in fact, content on any great female athlete - time for some words on Caroline Buchanan, Patrick! It won't work all of the time and it will take time to increase female participation on this site but the best way of increasing traffic is to provide more content and let word of mouth and clever selection of content do the rest.
Ra Bro
Guest
Thanks Kak, lots of bloke writing about lots of sports played mostly by blokes; with comments sections dominated by blokes including you and me. Hmmm sounds pretty blokey to me.
Ra Bro
Guest
Blokes dominated sports Kak, if I have to be pedantic
Jason K
Guest
It sounds like the foundation for something truly great is happening. If it is as you say it is, I wouldn't be surprised to see netball blow up in the media in the upcoming decades. What you are really talking about is cultural change, and that takes time. But with systematic, coordinated efforts like this, that change can happen. I'm not even 100% sure what netball is, but I wish everyone involved the best of fortune. I'm for anything that is more interesting to watch than basketball and soccer.
Kaks
Roar Guru
The Roar is a sports site, not a blokes site. So here we have a sport like Netball with a lack of interest on a sports news site, and yet Media outlets should pay more money to promote the game?
Worlds Biggest
Guest
I watched the game and really enjoyed it. Our girls were terrific and a great crowd watched two heavyweights go at it. Agree more coverage should have been afforded the Final win.
bigbaz
Roar Guru
Didn't know that was the rule, not gunna let my wife read it from now on, thanks Ra.
Brendon
Guest
All good points but Australia has increasingly moved towards only the 3 big sports getting any sort of coverage. Look at the recent FINA swimming world champs. Australia picked up 7 golds, all in Olympic events including 100m and 200m backstroke double by Mitch Larkin but if you went out to the streets and asked people who Mitch Larkin is I doubt many people would know. Now go back to the 90's when the likes of Perkins and Sam Reilly were winning world championship golds and it was big news. The basketball series against New Zealand has got even less attention with the Boomers securing direct Rio 2016 qualification. Even in NZ it didnt get much attention with only 4000 people turning out to see the return leg. Something like 16,000 turned out to see Australia beat the NZ in the first game. A crowd bigger than many NRL matches yet barely a blip on the local sports radio where 99% of it is dedicated to regurgitating the same talking points about the NRL and AFL. Netball still faces the problems it has for many years but it also has to face the shrinking interest in sports that aren't rugby league, Aussie rules or cricket.
Ra Bro
Guest
Probably because theroar is a blokes site Kak.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Just going to remind you that the articles that were posted on the Roar about the Netball World Cup garnered a very low amount of interest. That is all you need to know.
Rocco75
Guest
"As a former journalist, I can tell you that the sports departments of commercial media are usually all staffed by males who focus on the sports played by males and in my time, netball was derided as a ‘girl’s game’ and pushed into the inside back pages and not given much space." sounds like soccer, of which I am a fan. Netball dad, I understand your point. My wife is a huge netball fan, still plays it today. Unfortunately you only need to look at the last few weeks stories on tv deals for the NRL and AFL to realise that these atittudes are still prevalent today. Both those games getting massive TV deals. What I do know is that netball is hugely popular in Australia and they are using social media and the internet to grow their product. FoxSports has the ANZ Championship and also Diamonds international matches. Not sure if Channel 10 covers the ANZ Championship but they do cover Diamonds games. "despite the barriers and ignorance displayed by traditional mainstream media" this exists for a lot of other sports in Australia - ask the NBL and Basketball Australia..... yet that doesn't stop kids coming through and becoming Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Tim Cahill etc.... even Jason Day. That guy picked up a club at 12 and become a world class golfer. My point is that we could argue who should and shouldn't get the most media coverage BUT in this day and age, mainstream media won't stop a young kid from aspiring to be a champion in a chosen sport.
onside
Guest
Thanks for that
Xavier Smith
Roar Rookie
I have to agree with this article, I thought the lack of attention on the front page of Mebourne's Monday papers highlighted this.
Netball dad
Guest
Kaks - really sorry, but I think your comments display a woeful ignorance of netball and its historic treatment by the media, and I'm sure you're not an ignorant person. As a former journalist, I can tell you that the sports departments of commercial media are usually all staffed by males who focus on the sports played by males and in my time, netball was derided as a 'girl's game' and pushed into the inside back pages and not given much space. You only have to see how The Canberra Times's local sports section treats netball to know that these attitudes are still prevalent in most mainstream media. The ABC is really the sole exception this, especially in covering netball in the past eight years since the Trans Tasman League began and it hasn't had the rights to the games. Network Ten also deserve congratulations for broadcasting netball. Your bet might be safe in male-only readerships who follow rugby league but in the wider world, not real at all. As netball is the largest participation sport of women in this country (and that's a fact), I'll bet you that more people could name every member of the Diamonds than those who could tell you Jarryd Hayne is - netball is a national game, rugby league isn't. Netball Australia, despite the barriers and ignorance displayed by traditional mainstream media, have done an amazing job of using social media to get their stories and messages out there to an audience craving more and more. If media outlets had any commercial sense, they should realise that the netball community is potentially 50 per cent of the national population and therefore, in order to attract advertisers, they should be full of netball content. You're entitled to have an opinion but please, next time, do some research and season your comment with some facts.