A SEISMIC shift to bring greater equality between elite Sunraysia footballers and netballers is finally starting to bridge a million-dollar pay divide, after a summer of soul searching by the clubs.
In a two-part special report on the Sunraysia Football Netball League, the Daily can reveal five of the nine clubs will pay their A Grade netballers in 2024, a “long overdue” move to improve gender equality just a week out from the new season.
It comes after a front-page Sunraysia Daily report on finals eve last year revealed only bottom club Red Cliffs were prepared to pay their top-grade team.
In a shock development, it’s now Sunraysia netball’s two battlers, the Tigers and Robinvale Euston, who are proving the leading lights in recognising the worth of women in local sport.
At John James Oval, the club president who didn’t want to know about netball in past years has fallen on his sword in the off-season and – wait for it – is now running the Eagles’ netball program.
Veteran administrator Phil Lamattina told Sunraysia Daily in August last year that he didn’t rate netball “one bit”.
But this week, a reborn Lamattina couldn’t talk up the potential of local netball enough.
“I finally came to the conclusion that I can’t continue to stick my head in the sand,” the carrot king of Robinvale said.
“I made a conscious decision that I wanted to contribute to our netball program, so I’ve put my hand up this year.
“We have young Georgia Giofrelle coaching A-grade this year, and I couldn’t allow her to be a lamb to the slaughter. If she was good enough to put her hand up at such a tender age (20), then I wanted to as well.
“We’re both learning in these roles, but at the same time, we are focused on making the club successful across all levels of netball.”
Showing how serious he is about developing netball at the club, he’s engaged consultants Inspire Netball Group to provide specialist advice on coaching, player development and club culture this season.
It’s a remarkable turnaround for an old-school, football-mad president, but there are still other clubs who are dragging the chain on recognition for Sunraysia’s best netballers.
While the Tigers, Eagles, Imperials, Mildura and South Mildura will pay their A -grade netballers this season, Merbein, Irymple and Ouyen United will be expecting their top-level players to hit the court in 2024 for love, not money.
Many observers had expected Wentworth to be the first club recognising the value of their top-class talent, led by Amanda Edwards, given their A-graders are the two-time defending premiers.
However, the Roos are yet to decide on whether they will be paying their A-grade team this season.
It’s left the league’s netball representatives scratching their heads and other club presidents bewildered by the lack of complete progression.
Yelena Richardson, a rising star on the SFNL board, said this week it was “high time the old guard realised it was 2024, not 1974”.
“Netballers aren’t demanding that they get paid. But there is a prevailing feeling among the players that they should be better respected, just as the footballers are respected in payment terms,” the veteran Red Cliffs A -grade defender said.
“I was shocked by your report about just how few local netballers were being paid. I felt considerably lucky to be at a club who did pay their players.
“We’re probably a long way off from having a salary cap and points system, like in football, although I hope I’m proven wrong on this.”
Tigers president Mick Smith is a passionate supporter of women in sport.
He said it was disrespectful to expect female athletes to cop the full brunt of playing costs without pay, while the red carpet is rolled out for footballers.
“It’s a pretty simple equation. Let’s look at the basic costs for players. There’s petrol costs to games, netball shoes – which cost at least 200 bucks; I know because I just bought some for my daughter – and then there’s food, membership, physio and so on. It’s not free to play netball,” Smith said.
Richardson highlighted another massive gender inequality in the SFNL.
She said there were now 61 life members of the league, but only three were women.
“And one of those, Marion Leslie (Robinvale Euston), was inducted for her service to football,” Richardson said.
She said the likes of Kym Mayne should be recognised for her many years of service to local netball.
