Lasting, structural change rarely comes from one person alone. It usually happens through collective efforts that often involve people in power and those on the outside. But often these actions require a spark – and that is where one person can make a difference. For netball in Australia – a sport that has been battling waves of off-court controversy over the past four years – that spark may have arrived in the form of Liz Ellis.
A year on from when multiple attempts to join the Netball Australia board were rebuffed, Australia’s most capped international player finally has the seat at the table that she has so craved. She revealed last year she had sounded out NA’s chair, Wendy Archer, on two occasions when vacancies were coming up, but in the first instance the board was seeking a candidate with a financial background and in the second the two incumbents were reappointed.
Ellis has been vocal in her criticism of Netball Australia throughout the crises that have plagued the sport in recent years, most notably during the bitter pay dispute of 2023 that saw all Super Netball players off contract and without any source of income for almost two months.
Since then, former CEO Kelly Ryan has departed and Archer has announced that she will step down as chair in May, though she will remain as a director until her three-year term ends in May 2025. It is in this atmosphere of sweeping change that Ellis enters the arena with the hope of steering the ship in the right direction.
She comes to the table with considerable knowledge and background over and above her own playing experience – she led the State of the Game review in 2020, which recommended a variety of changes to the way netball is administered. One of the key changes implemented from that review was an inclusive uniform policy designed to break down barriers to participation in a sport often associated with traditional femininity. However, there remain areas of the review – such as a national digital strategy and optimising Super Netball to drive commercial growth – that have not yet been realised.
This provides Ellis with the perfect platform from which to launch.
“Where other sports are leaving us behind is in the commercial offering,” she told ABC radio on Tuesday. “I think we need to be very careful and considered, but still have a good look at what external investment into the sport looks like. Where that money could come from, who’s going to be the people that invest and what value they need out of it. And I think that will allow us then to really set the sport up to allow us to take the other sports on.”
Already news of the appointment has been met with almost universal approval – a level of agreement on social media so high it is essentially unheard of. Players past and present have also shared their endorsement. NSW Swifts co-captain Maddy Proud, England star Helen Housby and Australian Netball Players’ Association president Jo Weston were among those who praised the move, along with former players turned commentators Kim Green and Madi Browne.
However, with this wave of publicity and adoration comes a certain level of pressure. Players and fans have got behind the appointment because they believe Ellis can pull the sport from the grim depths in which it has found itself in recent times. They see her return to the sport as a beacon of hope, a sign that better days are to come. They remember the dogged determination she brought to her on-court battles with New Zealand’s seemingly unstoppable goal shooter Irene van Dyk to grind out victory time and again, and they believe she can once again rise to a formidable challenge and come out on top.
Ellis has been forthright with her aims, but she has also attempted to temper enthusiasm somewhat, reminding the public that she cannot solve all netball’s problems on her own – nor will she attempt to do so. Enthusiasm is a hard thing to control though, and those high expectations will not be shifted easily.
Appetite for change is high as Ellis enters the halls of power. It is not an easy task, but she has consistently proven herself worthy of a challenge. Perhaps she said it best herself, when she spoke to the players ahead of her last game as their captain – the 2007 Netball World Cup final.
“Winning a final isn’t about doing extraordinary things,” she told her teammates. “It’s about doing ordinary things in extraordinary circumstances.”
On that day it was Ellis who took the intercept that turned the tide of the game and spurred Australia to victory with just minutes remaining. It was a moment that is writ large in netball history. But in these new extraordinary circumstances, she has the opportunity to leave an even greater legacy.
