How netball is breaking barriers in the Pacific

By Stephanie Smarrelli & Sophie Taylor

The last few years in netball have been momentous, and that rings true for Netball Australia's Pacific partners. 

One of the organisation's key objectives is to grow and support the game globally using the resources that Netball Australia has to offer. To do that, involves telling compelling stories about netball in the Pacific and to deliver strong programs and pathways for aspiring athletes, leaders and the wider community. 

Supporting these programs and pathways has been PacificAus Sports, an Australian Government sports diplomacy initiative developing opportunities for Pacific teams and athletes to compete in elite competitions and access high performance coaching in Australia and internationally.

Netball Australia and PacificAus Sports have been partnering since 2021 and implemented some incredible programs over this time. Here's a breakdown of each of them.

PACIFICAUS SPORTS NETBALL SERIES  

Introduced in 2022, the PacificAus Sports Netball Series has provided Netball Australia's PacificAus Sports Partners Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea with the opportunity to develop their netball skills and regularly compete against nations they otherwise would not have been given the opportunity to compete against. 

Tonga went from unranked prior to the series beginning to now be one of the Top 10 netball nations in the world. The side has won all three iterations of the PacificAus Sports Netball Series to date. 

For the first series in March 2022, Singapore was also invited to take part with the aim of the competition to help revitalise netball in the Asia-Pacific region and provide a platform for teams to develop ahead of the 2023 Netball World Cup. 

While the tournament's second edition in October 2022 featured invitees the USC Thunder and an Australian pathways team enabling up-and-coming Australian talent to get experience playing against different international styles of play.  

The third series took place in April 2023 and was the biggest yet with the Pacific nations once again joined by invitee Singapore but in a first African nations Malawi, Zambia and Kenya made the trip down under. 

The tournament has also boosted the profile of the stars of the Pacific including; Hulita Veve, Uneeq Palavi, Michaela Kadlecek, Abigail Latu-Meafou and Maria Lutua Rusivakula.   
 
Speaking ahead of the 2023 Series Rusivakula highlighted the importance of the competition and the PacificAus Sports program in the lead up to the Netball World Cup. 

“These are the kind of competitions that we need, quality competition and matches like this massively helps in the preparation for the World Cup. There’s so many teams constantly playing test matches and these competitions really help us,” she said. 

“Constant competition and matches helps build the team and the exposure and experience for the girls. The program does really help very much.” 

ATHLETE IMMERSION 

During the last few years, the PacificAus Sports Immersion Program has created opportunities for emerging Pacific athletes to benefit from high performance coaching and training in Australia. 

The program also provided Australian athletes with a greater understanding of the Pacific and exposed them to new cultures and different styles of play.   

In 2023, the program ran again with Fijian Pearls, Reama Verekauta and Avelina Navue heading to New South Wales where they joined the IMB South Coast Blaze for a six-week period in which they were exposed to the club's high-performance opportunities. 

The athletes were coached by former Fijian International Marji Parr who provided them with a valuable connection to back home.  

Verekauta was thankful for the program and the better understanding of their bodies it's given Nauve and herself.  

“I feel like we have a lot to take home, a lot of knowledge from Marj and the specialist coaches,” she said. 

“I feel like we are just going go home and be so excited to share with the girls what we have learned from this program." 

Since 2021 the immersion program has supported 32 emerging Pacific athletes. 

COACH EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Momentum is building within the Pacific islands’ netball programs after three strong years of continued development. 

Professional development has been a key part of building up Pacific nations, with Netball Fiji, Netball Papua New Guinea, Netball Samoa and Tonga Netball all benefitting off the collaboration and knowledge sharing over the past three years. 

The collaboration between Netball Australia and the Australian Government through PacificAus Sports focuses on strengthening organisational governance, administration, human resource management, financial management, program management and monitoring and evaluation.   

Opportunities such as the two ODA workshops held throughout 2023 allowed key figures to connect with each other and build relationships - across the pacific, and away from the court. 

These workshops not only promoted growth from a high performance perspective, but also focussed on the promotion of key opportunities off the court – such as securing commercial partnerships and developing marketing and communications objectives – to strengthen the Pacific nations’ opportunities in the future. 

COACH IMMERSION 

Coach immersion has been a key part of PacificAus Sports’ mission over the past three years, promoting greater opportunities for high performance development across pacific island nations. 

Former Origin Diamonds captain Clare Ferguson had a unique opportunity to contribute to the future of Pacific coaching in late 2021. 

Ferguson, along with Suncorp Super Netball official Tim Marshall, presented at a five-day virtual training program for 30 prospective netball officials in Samoa.   

More recently, Origin Diamonds head coach Stacey Marinkovich attended the PacificAus Sports Netball Series in Queensland, paying a special visit to Samoa and Papua New Guinea's netball trainings. 

As well as guidance on coaching, Marinkovich was able provide some valuable perspectives and tools for the PNG and Samoa coaches to implement within their own groups away from the court. 

“Success can be measured in wins and losses, but that is only one part. Who you are, the journey you have taken, the obstacles you have overcome, and the relationships you build are what ensures that your country’s team is respected,” Marinkovich said, of her time within the Samoan and PNG programs.  
 

SUNCORP SUPER NETBALL TOURS 

Players from Suncorp Super Netball clubs Sunshine Coast Lightning and Adelaide Thunderbirds experienced once in a lifetime opportunities over the past few years, attending tours to Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Samoa. 

These tours brought some of the leagues’ elite into the local community of budding netballers.  

Across the unique international tours, Suncorp Super Netball players were immersed into the culture and customs of each island nation, and in turn provided coaching and mentoring to players and coaches alike. 

Past tours also included school and community clinics, high performance workshops and training with the national teams and pathways programs. 

Adelaide Thunderbirds premiership players attended a tour to Samoa in late 2023, with premiership star and Origin Australian Diamond Matilda Garrett expressing her gratitude for the opportunity. 

“It’s been really cool to be able to come and share what we do and how we go about it, but there’s also a lot we can take from coaching and watching these athletes too,” Garrett said.  

“It’s been awesome to come out here and see all the Samoan flair that everyone has.” 
 

FIJI-AUS QUAD SERIES 

In October 2023, Australia's IMB South Coast Blaze and Sunshine Coast Thunder to travelled to Fiji to compete the Fiji-Aus Quad Series, a three-day round robin tournament against Fiji's national squad.  
 
The two Australian sides went head-to-head with two teams from Fiji's national squad providing the pacific nation with high-level match play as well as a chance for final team selection decisions to be made before the Fiji Pearls headed to the XVII Pacific Games.

The Fiji-Aus Quad Series provided the athletes from Blaze and Thunder with the opportunity to immerse themselves in Fijian culture. The Australian teams trained with local Fijian teams and attended various netball clinics at primary schools around Suva. 

Speaking to Netball Fiji, head coach of the Thunder Simone Nalatu, commended the PacificAus Sports program. 

“PacificAus Sports is a fantastic initiative...it provides opportunities for Fijian athletes to experience high performance environments, giving them the opportunity to see and learn how Australian teams play,” Nalatu said.