One Small Step For Netball Too Large A Leap For Blokes

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday February 14, 2007

Jessica Halloran

WHEN it comes to discussing netball some blokes should just step out of it, according to the women who know best.

During a Senate estimates committee hearing yesterday, the Australian Sports Commission chief, Mark Peters, suggested that maybe netballers needed to take an "extra step" in the game to reduce knee and ankle injuries. Netball rules don't allow players to take more than one step in possession of the ball.

The "extra step" debate emerged after Senator Kate Lundy raised a Netball Australia report regarding women's participation in sport.

Mr Peters's line of thinking had Senator Lundy miffed because she felt there were more serious issues to discuss regarding the nation's most popular game for women.

"I just think it's a bit of a red herring in the scheme of things," Senator Lundy said. "There are plenty of other issues confronting netball that I think they need to resolve. One of them is the cost of participation.

"I think it was a bit of an old-fashioned understanding of how the game is played, it's not a particularly good understanding of the game. You know maybe part of the problem is that blokes don't understand netball.

"He alluded to some previous study that the Sports Commission had done, it must be pretty old ... blokes reckon they know about everything that's going on in women's sport, but you know, they put their foot in it. It's terrific."

The Australian netball captain, Liz Ellis, said she and her elite teammates had never considered pushing for a rule change to take an "extra step". "Players don't even think about it," Ellis said. "And it would make no difference anyway."

Leonie Otago advises the National Netball League and completed her doctorate on the "extra step". Her studies proved that it would not reduce knee injuries in the game.

"I looked at would it matter if you took an extra step doing a pivot landing, or would it matter if you took an extra step if you did a run on type landing," Dr Otago said. "The research unequivocally showed it made absolutely no difference.

"What happened was because people knew they could take an extra step, they went faster. And as soon as you go faster, you increase the load on the body. In terms of loads on the knee joints and the ankles there were no significant differences between taking an extra step and just taking what is now a legal step.

"This red herring is brought up at every possible opportunity and it's just because you know they don't do their homework. Part of the study we did was for the Sports Commission; it was funded by the Sports Commission.

"It just keeps coming up, and it's usually men who bring it up."

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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