Grand final day at the MCG – it doesn’t take any more words than that to paint a picture for anyone even vaguely familiar with AFL. Grand final day is an event that transcends the two teams on the field. From the parade on Friday, the grand final breakfast on Saturday, the pre-game motorcade and entertainment and the post-game presentations, it is less a game of football than a centrepiece of Australian culture.
While the NRL grand final doesn’t carry quite the same weight of tradition, there is still a significant sense of prestige in running out on to the same stadium where Cathy Freeman won her iconic gold medal in the 2000 Olympics, in front of a roaring crowd who are there to witness history being made.
The Suncorp Super Netball grand final does not have a tradition centred around a stadium or city. Even in its prior iterations – the Commonwealth Bank Trophy (1997-2007) and the ANZ Championship (2008-2016), grand finals were always hosted by the team who won the major semi-final – the first team to qualify for the grand final.
The fact that longstanding traditions do not exist is not entirely the fault of Netball Australia. While the flagship men’s sport in Australia was merrily building these legacies, women were consigned to the sidelines and the fact that a national netball league existed at all in 1997 is due in no small part to the dedication and resilience of the women who ran the sport in the shadows.
In the absence of tradition, having teams earn hosting rights each year makes sense. It provides two weeks’ notice for ticket sales and guarantees a home team appearance to fill and energise the stadium. Aside from the pandemic-affected 2020 and 2021 seasons, it is a system that has served netball well.
So when the news emerged that Netball Australia had – without consulting with its athletes – sold the hosting rights to this season’s grand final to the highest bidder, there was naturally some blowback. The transgression might not be so egregious had the governing body not done something very similar in 2020 when they introduced the two-point super shot at short notice and without consulting their main stakeholders – the players and clubs.
In both cases, a decision with enormous impacts for the players – on whose marketability the league is sold – was made without their input and thrust upon them when it was too late to do anything but grudgingly agree.
Both decisions have also been financially motivated. The super shot – so we were told – was a marketing tool that would bring increased fans and revenue into the sport, which was so desperately needed as the pandemic got its claws into every corner of our lives. Those who opposed the rule change were accused of being conservative, not able to embrace change, holding the sport back from greatness.
The financial motivations behind this latest decision mean the same claims are likely to be made. What else could they do? Oppose this decision and you oppose the sustainable future of the sport – and which player or fan would want to do that?
But it is not just the decision itself that is questionable, it is the timing. With only two rounds to go in the regular season, the Melbourne Vixens are poised to take the minor premiership and host the major semi-final, which will put them in the box seat to be the first team to qualify for the grand final. After winning the 2020 premiership in Brisbane during the Melbourne lockdown, then finishing at the bottom of the ladder in 2021, fans and administrators in Victoria would have been picturing a homecoming in a packed John Cain Arena – an image that has been cruelly ripped from their clutches just as it draws close.
Instead, should the Vixens reach the grand final, it will be on the back of a long trip to Perth to play in front of a potentially hostile crowd. With the West Coast Fever occupying second place on the ladder, they are likely to find themselves in a grand final at home. If they win the major semi-final, administrators will breathe a sigh of relief – hosting rights will fall the way they always should have. But if they lose – or worse, if the team falters the following week and fails to even qualify for the grand final, the marketing efforts will need to pivot more ferociously than a goal shooter taking a precarious pass on the baseline.
The prestige of the events means the AFL can accommodate a Sydney v West Coast grand final, and the NRL a Broncos-Storm decider. Fans will travel, neutral local fans will pick up tickets just to be part of the event. But with only four weeks remaining until grand final day, Netball Australia simply does not have the time or resources to turn this game into a prestige event worthy of a neutral crowd. That is not a slight on the sport – it would be an equally difficult task for the A-Leagues or Big Bash Leagues. What sustains major events tied to a city is history. And that is something that cannot be bought or sold for any price.
