Welcome to August

We’re on the home stretch of the season now, and approaching finals in a few weeks time! For a lot of divisions you will start to see split rounds over the next few weeks, which will be run as half games. Your coach/manager will let you know if/when this affects you, but please keep your eye out for these!

Importantly, we are once again on canteen duty and court support this weekend. Please sign up here, remembering that we need volunteers from every team!

It was wonderful to be back at the courts last Saturday and see the joy on the faces of everyone involved in playing, coaching and umpiring. We are very fortunate to have a community of supporters that enables us to put 30+ teams on court every weekend. This includes our fabulous team of coaches and umpires who invest their team each and every week.

Unforunately, as an association, we are seeing an increase in poor behaviour – aggressive play on court and criticism of players, coaches and umpires (many of who are young and developing). SCNA has made it clear behaviour that goes against the Code of Behaviour won’t be tolerated. While we know many of us are competitive, we ask all to participate and support the game in a positive way and with respect for everyone involved. We are hoping that netball can remain a fun and safe space for everyone.

We’ve also been asked to pass on a few messages to the wider Bullants community:

Following up on the wonderful success of our very first Pride Round just before the holidays, Netball ACT is currently looking to provide an online LGBTQIA+ education session, which will be run by Pride in Sport in September. This is open to all members of the netball community but recommended for those 16+, or for those under 16 with the company of a guardian. If you’re interested, please click the link here to complete an expression of interest.

We’ve recently been asked to share a link to some research from Deakin University to reduce gender inequality in sport and active recreation participation. They are conducting an online survey on barriers and strategies to support the participation of women and girls in sport and active recreation during menstruation. Click here if you’d like to participate, it only takes 10 minutes!