MILDURA-BORN Jake Hederics grew up surrounded by netballers and is now celebrating the rise of men in the sport after being selected for the Australian Men’s Netball team.
Hederics was selected for the Australian Men’s and Mixed Netball Association’s Australian Men’s team last week, after competing for Victoria at the national tournament in South Australia.
Hederics said the Australian team was “20 players strong” and had players predominantly from Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia, but also South Australia and Queensland.
Despite being surrounded by family members who played the sport, Hederics played basketball and volleyball and didn’t take up netball until he left Mildura.
“My mum and sister are very heavily involved in netball,” he said.
“My sister coaches the A-grade Wentworth team, my mum coaches the B grade team, so I’ve always been involved in the netball community in Mildura.
“I was always watching but of course there is not really any opportunities for boys playing netball … there aren’t any platforms particularly in the country, there are more in the city now but nothing in Mildura.”
Hederics said he moved to Adelaide, where he began playing social netball before being asked to try out for the South Australian team.
“I tried out and made the SA men’s team and that was back in 2016 and that was the year I debuted at nationals,” he said.
“That year I was selected in the Australian 23s squad and the year after that I was selected again to play for SA and was selected in the Australian men’s team there.”
Hederics said he played in SA for a few years before relocating to Melbourne in 2020 and playing for the Victorian team.
This year’s nationals were the first time he had played for the Victorian team, due to the pandemic.
Hederics said being selected for the Australian team again was an “honour and a privilege”.
“Growing up, never in a million years did I think I would play at this standard or this level at any sport and I never would’ve thought it was netball of all things,” he said.
“I love the game and I look up to the women in the sport, they are my idols.
“It is crazy now I get to not just represent Australia but I am often invited to attend training with the Melbourne Vixens and the Collingwood Magpies with the Suncorp teams and just being exposed to those training environments is just awesome.”
Hederics said he was excited to see the direction men’s netball was heading in.
“I think it is really exciting where (netball) is going for men at the moment,” he said.
“For the first time really in years, there are conversations with Netball Australia and all the state netball organisations. We are starting to get more recognition and it is exciting because we are seeing that that’s the direction that a lot of those sports are going, we’ve seen it with the women’s AFL.
“It is exciting that there might be more opportunities for boys and men in netball now.”
Having played for the Australian team before, Hederics said opponents varied year to year.
“Currently there hasn’t been any announcements yet about where we will be playing this year,” he said.
“In 2020 when the pandemic happened, that was the year Australia was going to hold a Netball World Cup for men, but obviously that never went ahead.
“Previous to that there was the Trans-Tasman Cup, which is a test series against New Zealand.”
Hederics said he hoped Australia would soon be able to host another Netball World Cup.
