A Stepping Stone To A Brave New World

The Sunday Age

Sunday August 19, 2007

Linda Pearce, Sydney

SHARELLE McMahon has too much netball left in her athletic 30-year-old body to spend too long thinking about how she will be remembered, but the Melbourne Phoenix champion has wondered whether the national league to which she has devoted 11 years will ultimately be thought of much at all.

Back in 1997, it was billed as the most ambitious project in Australian netball history: an eight-team competition with a million-dollar budget, replacing the small-scale league that had run since the mid-1980s.

But the lead-up to the inaugural season was far from glitch-free, with controversy over everything from sponsorship delays to operational secrecy and a sleazy promotional video to appalled disbelief at the decision to name the teams after different species of birds.

Gradually, though, it found its feet, and its modest niche, and six of the original eight teams plus the Canberra Darters and Hunter Jaegers competed in the farewell season that ends with today's grand final between the Melbourne Phoenix and Sydney Swifts.

The new 10-team Tasman Trophy competition starts in April, with its total budget of more than $20 million already six or seven times as large as the loss-making national league in its swansong year.

In some ways it has been a limited success, in others overwhelmingly positive, with Australian captain Liz Ellis and her deputy McMahon its two most enduring stars.

"It's a strange feeling, because I've put so much of my heart and soul into this team and this competition and I guess when people look back it's only been 11 years and it will probably be a bit of a blip, so hopefully my career means something at the end of it all, " McMahon said.

"I think it will be regarded as a stepping stone. The changes that I've seen just in that 11-year period have been enormous at all levels - from the administration, to the running of events, to the commitment and time and effort that the players and the support staff put into the team. It's absolutely in another league, basically, from where we started."

Her coach Julie Hoornweg concedes that crowds would have ideally been bigger but that "in terms of what it was allowing our elite athletes to do it was fantastic. Week in, week out, the best netball in the world, travelling, learning how to work on the road, to prepare . . . I just think it's been an absolutely fantastic support for the Australian program and for our athletes."

Back in 1997, players were still amateurs, effectively paying to play with only an annual $2040 sports commission grant to cover time off work and training expenses.

In time came match payments, and the capacity to earn a maximum of $12-15,000 a season. That will rise significantly in the Tasman Trophy, funded largely by Foxtel in Australia and Sky in NZ.

With no free-to-air network willing to commit, Netball Australia had no option but to jump into bed with pay TV. That has been one source of concern, but new Netball Australia chief executive Kate Palmer acknowledges that change is a stressful business and that, for many, the angst mirrors that of 11 years ago.

"All of the things we set out to achieve at that time - giving the players an opportunity to move towards professionalism, to be able to play in regular high-standard competition, to profile the game, to increase our corporate support, all of those sorts of things - have happened, and so now we're actually aiming for something bigger, or better, which is very exciting," Palmer said.

"In time, Tasman Trophy will be something else." Like what? A global competition? "Why not! Why not."

Palmer concedes that a lack of marketing resources and the essential tool that is live TV have hampered attempts to take the sport to the masses who play and follow it, believing crowd numbers have reflected what has been spent.

When asked to rate the league's success, she says: "Probably seven out of 10. It's been difficult being so under-resourced . . . But based on the resources and the environment we were working in, I'd probably give it a 10 out of 10."

So is this the right time for change? McMahon is supportive of the new concept, but had noted some signs this year that support for the old one had started to build, including a record Melbourne crowd of 11,000 at Vodafone Arena.

"Obviously the people who are running the comp felt that it didn't quite get to where they wanted it," McMahon said.

2007 NATIONAL NETBALL LEAGUE GRAND FINAL

Acer Arena, Sydney, 1pm today, live on ABC

MELBOURNE PHOENIX v SYDNEY SWIFTS

Head-to-head: Phoenix 12; Swifts 15; 1 draw In grand finals: Phoenix 2, Swifts 1; This year, Phoenix 1, Swifts 1 The verdict: Swifts by three Likely starting line-ups:

PHOENIX

GS Abby Sargeant

GA Sharelle McMahon

WA Wendy Jacobsen

C Natasha Chokljat

WD Renae Hallinan

GD Jo Curran

GK Bianca Chatfield

SWIFTS

GS Catherine Cox

GA Susan Pratley

WA Kimberlee Green

C Selina Gilsenan

WD Kim Purcell

GD Mo'Onia Gerrard

GK Liz Ellis

COMMONWEALTH BANK TROPHY CHAMPIONS

Melbourne Phoenix 1997

Adelaide Thunderbirds 1998

Adelaide Thunderbirds 1999

Melbourne Phoenix 2000

Sydney Swifts 2001

Melbourne Phoenix 2002

Melbourne Phoenix 2003

Sydney Swifts 2004

Melbourne Phoenix 2005

Sydney Swifts 006

© 2007 The Sunday Age

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