Netball NSW has today published its Strategic Plan for 2023 to 2025, which provides a clear pathway to ensure that netball is the State’s leading sport of choice and opportunity.
Netball has proudly been the leading high-performance and community sport for NSW women and girls for over nine decades and the clear message in the new Strategic Plan is that the game plans to retain its number 1 position in women’s sport, whilst ensuring it is adapting and evolving to welcome a more expansive participation base and audience.
“It is our vision to make netball the leading sport of choice and opportunity across the State,” Netball NSW CEO Tracey Scott says.
“This means continuing to be leaders in women’s sport, focusing on innovation and inclusivity in terms of how we deliver the game and prioritising supporting our incredible volunteer community.
“We are excited for the next evolution of netball in NSW as we look to ensure our game continues to grow and thrive.
“When you look at our market-leading grassroots numbers, and the success of the Australian Diamonds on the world stage, coupled with the NSW Swifts and GIANTS Netball on the national front, the game is really the premier sport of choice across the State.
“We are already in every community, in every region from Albury in the south to Tweed Heads in the north.
“Over 20 million play netball worldwide and we have 20 of the world’s best in the NSW Swifts and GIANTS Netball – that is the calibre of athlete our game is producing year in and year out.”
With a meaningful commitment to capacity building, inclusivity and growth, a key strategic focus in the plan is to facilitate compelling opportunities to empower everyone in the community to nurture their love of the game.
“Netball gave women an equal voice and opportunity when they had no other avenues to pursue and we will always remain proud of this heritage. However, that has led to a perception at times that netball is a female-only sport, which is simply not the case,” Scott added.
“Visit any netball venue during the week and you will see men’s and/or mixed netball, while boys divisions in our Schools Cup have been highly popular. We now also have male divisions at our Junior and Senior State Titles. We have made some good progress over recent years and we want to accelerate this.
“Finally, more broadly, we feel it is our responsibility to unleash netball’s potential in NSW, and a fundamental part of achieving this is to ensure that we create environments and opportunities that meaningfully ensure netball is a sport for all communities, ages, genders and abilities.
“Netball is the most popular team sport in NSW and provides more health and social benefits to the community than any other code in the State.
“We must champion the game and market it properly as the major player it is on the NSW sporting landscape.”
To view the full Netball NSW Strategic Plan please CLICK HERE