Almost four years between international tours, the Australian men's netball team is preparing to take to the court in the Trans-Tasman tour of New Zealand.
The 1,449-day hiatus will end on October 12 and it cannot come soon enough for captain Dylan Nexhip, who said he's looking to use the tour across the ditch to pick up growth in the men's game after a training camp on the Central Coast.
"After such a long lay-off between last international series to now the excitement, anticipation and everything's built that when we get there, it's just nothing but pure passion and we bring that high-performance environment," Nexhip said.
"I just don't think we expected the environment to be (so good) — the enthusiasm was there, the passion was there, the connection was there.
"When you're off in your own states, you're all working in a working in isolation a little bit, but we've got that big picture in mind … we're just so grateful that we're in this environment."
With four international matches scheduled in October against New Zealand and England, Nexhip said there is an opportunity to show young boys that they can take up the sport and increase participation rates.
"I think all of us have been involved with men's netball for so long that we've had the challenges of that the stigma that comes with men's netball and we've really worked hard to break them down," he said.
"Netball Australia (NA) and Australian Mens & Mixed Netball Association (AMMNA) are working really hard to make sure that there is exposure to men's netball.
"This is a great start and what this tour is going to do is going to boost the profile of netball."
Aligning the pathways for men's and women's netball
Coming from a sporting family and growing up in regional Victoria's Tongala, Nexhip was denied pursuing his netball dream when he was 12 years old, due to an age barrier that meant he could no longer play alongside young girls.
Being in a regional town, the options were limited. Nexhip chose to take up other sports; something he has reflected on.
"I think when I was a five-year-old running around the netball courts at Tongala, I never thought that I'd be able to say that I'm about to go on an international tour to represent Australia in men's netball," Nexhip said.
"Part of the state of the game review was about making sure that there is exposure for men's netball and trying to develop that pathway."
For Australian children aged up to 14, approximately 318,000 participants play netball, with just three per cent (10,000) being boys, according to a Sport Australia report.
AMMNA Strategy and Competition Development Officer Heath Brown said the partnership was crucial to exposure for the men's national team.
"Under the State of the Game Review, Netball Australia are partnering with AMMNA to grow male participation. The first tranche of this is elite visibility, which we know drives participation," Brown said.
"Concurrent to this, all state bodies now have new programs being launched to capture more boys into competition and the growth is already happening."
For players like Nexhip, being a leader on and off the court is evident with the historic national double headers playing a key pillar to the success in developing and retaining boys in the sport.
"I think that barrier has been broken down in terms of one gender being more superior in this sport," Nexhip said.
"Both genders can provide their platform of netball and their brand of netball and can do it alongside each other to promote netball as a whole.
"It'd help align a lot of the processes that are in place. I think it was all run under the same umbrella (AMMNA and NA) I think it would definitely have huge benefits.
"In an ideal world, men's netball becomes a professional sport and you've got a Suncorp NSW Swifts female team and a NSW Swifts men's team.
"It's such a high level game for both genders and they're both played a little bit differently, so they've both got their own uniqueness about them."
2032 Olympics a target, but self-funding a challenge for athletes
While the dream of netball becoming an Olympic sport is in the pipeline, Nexhip said the Australian Men's Netball Team is hoping to use its profile to encourage more nations to pursue men's netball.
"I know it's in 10 years time. But I think if we can get a sport like netball into the Olympics, it's just going to grow it," Nexhip said.
"We've talked a lot about it as a group that we want to be the pioneers or custodians to really make sure that we recognise all the work that's been done before us for men's netball.
"We want to make sure that we're doing everyone credit and making sure for that next group or the next crop coming through that they have the opportunity to represent Australia at an Olympic Games."
While the pursuit of representing the country at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics may be far away, it would need a lot of support internationally to have the depth in men's netball reach the levels exceeded by women.
For that to happen, the men's national team would need to attract major sponsors to subsidise costs and raise professional standards globally, with the upcoming tournament self-funded by players.
"We've been able to get a little bit of sponsorship for this tour," Nexhip said.
"Athletes are still paying in excess of $2,000 per tour, so that's something that the committee are working hard at to try to reduce."
The financial burden of having no income means some players take annual leave from full-time work, while others are forced to take leave without pay.
"I think you know hopefully we can get to the point in time over the next couple of years where we're able to an international tour and athletes aren't having to pay," he said.
"It's where our sport is at the moment that you don't have a choice that you do have to have a full time job to be able to live in this in this world and be able to pursue our sport."
For now, Nexhip is just living his dream counting down the days until he captains the green and gold.
"As I think about it, I get the butterflies and a little bit of the goosebumps and things like that," he said.
"But until we walk in there and you look up and you see the faces and you hear the noise and things like that, I don't think we'll really fully understand the experience until we're in it."
The team will head to New Zealand to play in Auckland on October 12 and October 14, before being included as double headers with the Australian Diamonds in the Constellation Cup on home soil in Melbourne on October 19, and hosting England in Sydney on October 30.
