How netball pioneers led the charge

By Linda Pearce

Early in Sue Taylor’s 60 years as a volunteer sports administrator, the All Australia Netball Association council member had the foresight to move that half of annual membership revenue be set aside in a fund to enable the governing body to buy its own home.

One of those first office buildings, in Parramatta in Sydney’s west, would be known by an interesting nickname supplied by former Diamond Keeley Devery: The Quick and the Dead.

Netball HQ had once been a brothel. Also a funeral parlour. There were still mirrors on some of the ceilings. No corpses, at least.

In a very different but formative time for the sport, Pam Smith was then the national executive director of AANA, now Netball Australia; a role she would fill for almost 14 years of a 50-year involvement at club, national and international level.

Taylor, meanwhile, was president for 10 of her 30 years on various iterations of the NA board until 2015, and, like Smith, was vice-president of the International Netball Federation (now World Netball), among many other roles including a long association with the Commonwealth Games.

All these years later, the friends now share another connection, as the two new General Members in the Netball Australia Hall of Fame.

Taylor and Smith would argue in their days as a double-act, but find a way forward. They would disagree, and either agree to do so or compromise, always seeking what was best for netball.

Smith says of Taylor’s contribution: “Huge. I think you’d be hard pressed to find anybody who has done more, She’s been the president, she’s been the Chair, she’s been president of Western Australia, she’s been a national selector, she’s contributed to the board probably longer than anybody in Netball Australia’s history.

“And of all the people that I’ve had to work with in my professional life, Sue was probably the one I felt the most comfortable to say what I honestly thought and not fear any repercussions because it may not be something that she agreed with.’’

Taylor on Smith: “She was a steadying influence, she had terrific knowledge, she had a terrific respect of people, she understood the government system, she’d worked with politicians, and she attracted the right staff and could really work well with them.

“And everybody we had working for us in our time was passionate about the sport.’’

Pam Smith was both honoured and surprised by the Hall of Fame recognition, an addition to her precious 2015 Service Award.

After leaving the executive director role, the Sydneysider returned to NA as an elected Director in 2006 for 9 years that included chairing the Audit and Risk Committee as well as the Trans Tasman Netball League (known as the ANZ Championships).

The 72-year-old rarely looks back but, when pressed, admits to pride in her achievements as executive director from 1990-2003, during which she managed NA’s strategic direction, governance and structure, plus the 1997 introduction of the shiny new Commonwealth Bank Trophy.

Solid foundations remain. So do a few of the bird names required of all 10 foundation teams - which this writer, among quite a few, questioned at the time.

“I thought it was great,’’ Smith counters with a laugh.

“You’ve still got the Firebirds, the Thunderbirds, the Swifts… ‘’ 

A less complicated and stressful era, in some ways, preceded social media and other challenges, when early mobile phones ran on short-lasting AA batteries, discussions were more often face-to-face and contact was not a 24/7 expectation.

“It was always a struggle to get sponsorship and television, but now I think it’s probably even harder,’’ Smith says, noting the recent growth of rival women’s leagues in what were traditionally male-dominated sports such as AFL and NRL.

Netball’s breakthrough moment came in 1991, when Sydney hosted the world championships organised by the much-admired Noeleen Dix and staffed by masses of volunteers on committees overseeing accommodation, transport et al.

“Women have always been brilliant at doing all that sort of stuff, so I remember all of that, I remember the elation when we won, I remember (then prime minister) Bob Hawke, who was beside himself. It was huge. It was just huge,’’ Smith says.

“It did elevate (netball’s profile) and it elevated the individual players a bit more but it didn’t bring the individual players I guess the financial rewards… or certainly the rewards they receive now.’’

Sue Taylor AM has finally reflected on her decades in netball, the entree it provided to the broader sports community, and of feeling quite “overwhelmed” by her Hall of Fame induction.

“I’m really grateful that you said you would do this interview because it’s actually given me the first chance in 60 years to sit down and think about what I’ve done… and it’s been really quite interesting and quite cathartic.’’

One early, important, conversation came around the dinner table in Perth with sporty older brothers who were sick of the complaining and a father who told his daughter to go and join the committee making decisions if she didn’t agree with them.

“So I did that when I was 16 and I’ve been there ever since’’.

In 1963, as a player, coach and umpire, she became her club’s delegate to the WA state association. At her first World Tournament (the second ever held), she was variously a hostess to both the England and Australian teams, and met doyennes of the sport such as Eunice Gill, Lorna McConchie, Ann Clark and Marg Pewtress, England coach Mary French and Jamaican umpire Leila Robinson.

Taylor’s path now set, she was soon an Australian Netball Council delegate, where, along with the building fund coup, she pushed for the introduction of national championship finals (introduced 1987), then became a board member and long-standing INF delegate.

Never afraid to ask difficult questions, the 78-year-old believes her “strongest point” was the ability and willingness to play devil’s advocate.

“In all the meetings that I went to I was usually the last to speak and if somebody had said what I wanted to say I wouldn’t say anything,’’ Taylor says.

“But I would challenge people if we were talking about a subject and they hadn’t brought up a particular aspect, I’d just say ‘well, we haven’t talked about this. Should we?’.

“And I found that probably the most rewarding because it usually generated a much stronger discussion and a more reflective decision-making process.’’

Combined with her senior Commonwealth Games roles, Taylor treasures the experiences gained around the world - from mingling with royalty to those washing their clothes in the river - and, above all, so many enduring friendships.

“I’ve been fortunate to have met and worked with almost every person who’s had anything to do with netball’s development,’’ she says.

“It gives you an amazing perspective on what it takes to get from nothing to really something.’’