Academic literature on the topic 'Netball Australia'

A new professional netball competition in 2017 was part of a long-awaited boost for women’s sport in Australia. Netball has a significant footprint across the country, being the nation’s largest female participation team sport, and the national team is the reigning world champion. However, the sport has traditionally been underrepresented in both sports media and academic research. The new league was scheduled on free-to-air television after a landmark broadcast deal and the rise in media coverage reflected the growing commercial and public interest in female sport. As an example of this changing environment, it is important to examine what the coverage of women’s netball involves. This descriptive study utilises a content analysis to explore the newspaper sports reporting of the first season of the Super Netball League. Specifically, it measures the amount and tone of coverage, the types of stories and descriptions employed in articles, including mentions of men’s sport. Data have been collected from 703 articles from 15,335 stories in newspaper sports sections of nine national, metropolitan and regional publications. While newspaper coverage of netball was comparable with other sports in terms of professionalism and content, there was still only a small amount of stories.

This article generalizes the well-known negative binomial distribution (NBD) theory to attendance behavior at sporting events. Using data from a large national survey across a range of sporting events in Australia, including Australian football, rugby league, soccer (outdoor), horse racing, motor sports, rugby union, cricket (outdoor), netball (indoor and outdoor), basketball (indoor and outdoor), harness racing, and dog racing, we show that the NBD is very robust in describing sporting event attendance behavior. This result has implications for sporting event marketing activities, such as which attendee segments should be targeted, how to increase ticket sales, as well as predicting future attendance behavior.

Purpose:Prevention of the female athlete triad is essential to protect female athletes’ health. The aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of regularly exercising adult women in Australia toward eating patterns, menstrual cycles, and bone health.Methods:A total of 191 female exercisers, age 18–40 yr, engaging in ≥2 hr/wk of strenuous activity, completed a survey. After 11 surveys were excluded (due to incomplete answers), the 180 participants were categorized into lean-build sports (n = 82; running/athletics, triathlon, swimming, cycling, dancing, rowing), non-lean-build sports (n = 94; basketball, netball, soccer, hockey, volleyball, tennis, trampoline, squash, Australian football), or gym/fitness activities (n = 4).Results:Mean (± SD) training volume was 9.0 ± 5.5 hr/wk, with participants competing from local up to international level. Only 10% of respondents could name the 3 components of the female athlete triad. Regardless of reported history of stress fracture, 45% of the respondents did not think that amenorrhea (absence of menses for ≥3 months) could affect bone health, and 22% of those involved in lean-build sports would do nothing if experiencing amenorrhea (vs. 3.2% in non-lean-build sports, p = .005). Lean-build sports, history of amenorrhea, and history of stress fracture were all significantly associated with not taking action in the presence of amenorrhea (all p < .005).Conclusions:Few active Australian women are aware of the detrimental effects of menstrual dysfunction on bone health. Education programs are needed to prevent the female athlete triad and ensure that appropriate actions are taken by athletes when experiencing amenorrhea.

AbstractObjective:To systematically audit the extent of unhealthy sponsorship within junior community sporting clubs and ascertain whether differences exist across geographical areas and sport types.Design:Club sponsorship data were assessed to determine the extent of unhealthy food/beverage, alcohol and gambling sponsorship using a cross-sectional design. Differences across geographical areas were assessed using logistic regressions.Setting:A stratified random sampling procedure was used to select thirty communities across the state of Victoria, Australia. Within each community, local clubs across the top eight participating junior sports were selected for audit.Participants:Sponsorship data were collected from 191 club websites and Facebook pages in September–November 2019.Results:Unhealthy sponsorships represented 8·9 % of all identified sponsorship arrangements. A quarter of all clubs accepted alcohol (25·6 %) and unhealthy food sponsors (25·9 %), and one-fifth of all clubs accepted high-risk food (unhealthy brands with large market share) (18·1 %) and gambling sponsors (20·4 %). Acceptance of unhealthy sponsorship differed across sport types with football, netball, cricket and soccer clubs having the greatest numbers. Compared with metro areas, a significantly greater proportion of sporting clubs in regional areas were affiliated with unhealthy food (32·7 % v. 19·6 %) and high-risk food sponsors (26·9 % v. 9·8 %). A higher proportion of clubs in low socio-economic status (SES), compared with the high SES areas, were affiliated with alcohol (33·9 % v. 16·5 %) and gambling sponsors (27·4 % v. 12·6 %).Conclusion:Victorian children participating in community junior sports are being exposed to marketing of unhealthy brands and products. Public health intervention is necessary to protect children from this exposure.

This study examined the changes in the physiological profile of children engaged in organized sporting activity compared to a group of normally active children. Eight children (mean age 11.4 yrs) from each of four popular sports in Australia (badminton, basketball, netball, and tennis) and an equal number of nontraining children were monitored over a 12-week season. Very few differences occurred between the sporting groups and the control group. No change was reported between groups in peak oxygen uptake at the start and completion of the season. Changes occurring within each group did not consistently reflect any sport-specific characteristics over the season. Flexibility improved significantly, with an average gain of 3.76 cm in all groups except basketball players, who gained only 0.69 cm for the 12 weeks. Anaerobic power demonstrated significant improvement only within those sporting groups whose training specifically included explosive based activity. It is suggested that the active nature of the control children and use of only 12 weeks of data collection could have contributed to the limited physiological differences observed between active sporting and nonsporting children.

During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Australian professional sport leagues were impacted by temporary league shutdowns. One example is the Suncorp Super Netball, the world’s premier netball competition. This commentary paper explores the Suncorp Super Netball league shutdown from the perspective of the players. Our commentary has emerged from an ongoing ethnographic study supported by interviews with two players (a representative on the players association and a club captain) conducted during the league shutdown. Such a shutdown was the first in the history of the league, and it required an unprecedented response, coordinated by interdependent stakeholders. The authors outlined the importance of stakeholder communication in effectively navigating this extraordinary situation. In addition, the authors discussed the usefulness of technology-as-context for teamwork and leadership, given the limitations on physical interaction and geographical separation. In conclusion, the authors proposed recommendations for sport practitioners and potential research directions resulting from the coronavirus-related league shutdown.

This thesis investigates how sports organisations and discourses have impacted on the sports participation of women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in Australia. A series of national participation studies have documented that women from minority ethnic backgrounds have significantly lower participation rates in sports and physical activity than Anglo-Australian women. However, the explanations and dimensions of this difference have not been examined in previous research. The experiences of women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are used in this thesis to explore sports discourses and organisation and the embodiments of their interrelationship. The present research proposes that sports organisations and discourses within Australia have historically served to marginalise women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The arguments for this position are explored using a local narrative which details the situated nature of women????s experiences of sports. These experiences are located within a historical context that traces migration policies, the growth and development of sports and women????s social relations since white settlement of Australia. It is argued that contemporary sports discourses and organisation are inextricably tied to Australia????s colonial and imperialist past. Theories of ethnicity, gender and sports are analysed. The theoretical perspective taken in this thesis builds on feminist ideologies and ethnicity studies. Empirical analysis is undertaken using gender relations to situate sport as a site of cultural struggles best understood through investigations of history and diversity. Aspects of power, control and influence are central to this thesis. The empirical component of this thesis uses secondary data sources, surveys and interviews to investigate the research proposition. This is achieved on two levels. The first level interrogates existing data to create a macro level analysis of women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in sports. A survey of 972 schoolgirls was undertaken to collect information on sports participation and attitudes to sports. This was followed by 30 interviews with women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds that explored individual sports experiences and perspectives on sports. The second level of investigation employed the case study of netball to examine the research question as it related to a specific sports organisation. The case study component of the research involved document and archival analysis, a survey of 372 netball players and interviews with 18 women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and former and current netball administrators. The thesis analyses the empirical data as it relates to the organisation and discourse of sports in Australia. The principal conclusion reached is that sports organisation and discourses are located within a societal power structure that places women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds on its margins. Sports participation is predicated on conformity to existing cultural practices and expectations and it does little to facilitate cultural diversity. The women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who participated in the research did not perceive sports as particularly inclusive of gender and culture. The examination of netball demonstrated that netball has not been concerned with ????other???? women, rather it has focussed its efforts on appealing to ????mainstream???? women. While netball has not explicitly excluded the involvement of women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, neither has it actively encouraged cultural diversity. This thesis makes a contribution to knowledge in the field of sports studies with its empirical research and through the ensuing development of a framework for locating the implications of inclusion or exclusion in sports organisations and discourses. This understanding can be used to assess and inform future sports policy development and practice. Principally, the thesis seeks to acknowledge and legitimise the sports experiences of women from diverse backgrounds and in doing so provides insights into a better theoretical understanding about the nexus of gender, ethnicity and sports.

Over the last decade, professional sport for women in Australia has experienced significant growth. However, the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to all facets of life including sport has slowed momentum towards equity, diversity, and inclusion. This chapter considers the complex and contested growth of sport for women in Australia during this period. It starts with Australia and New Zealand's bid win for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. Then two Australian women's sport leagues are presented as illustrative case studies: the Australian Rules Football League for Women (AFLW) and the Super Netball League. A study of grassroots women's sports in 2020 highlights the challenges access and engagement can present for women and girls during this period. In summary, an exploration of the response of Australian women's sport to the COVID-19 pandemic provides opportunities for sports organisations to reassess and recalibrate the ways they could benefit both professional and grassroots sport for all.