By Linda Pearce
Jessie Grenvold took up netball for the same time-honoured reason as many children: to follow an adored older sibling.
It helped that she was tall, very tall, and able to fill in for her sister Eliza’s team at famous Adelaide club Contax.
It also mattered that she loved netball from as early as she can remember.
These days, chances are that Grenvold, a defender in her first year as a fully contracted player on the Melbourne Mavericks roster, would have made her sporting start in Woolworths NetSetGo.
Australia’s official grassroots netball program for 5-10-year-olds has been redesigned for 2026, with Grenvold among eight representatives from five of the eight Suncorp Super Netball teams who this Saturday will attend the fourth edition of the free annual Come and Play Day - at Fairfield in Melbourne’s inner north.
At least another 50 centres of the 600-plus registered nationwide will hold their own launch events across the weekend, in a quest to ultimately engage 55,000 kids - all genders welcome - with Australia’s most popular sport for women and girls.
Kids are encouraged to bring a buddy, a classmate, a neighbour or a family member.
“It’s a great way to get you on a netball court, give you a taste of what it’s like, but it’s not throwing you in the deep end where you have to know all the rules and everything about the sport,” says Grenvold, who will be joined on Saturday by Shimona Nelson, Hannah Mundy, Tayla Fraser, Tayla Williams and Gabby Sinclair.
“It’s so amazing that there’s this place you can go to start to gauge an idea of what netball is - you know, throw the ball around and have fun with your friends, there’s not many better things to do than that.
“It’s like with any sport; give it a go and see what you like. You might come and fall in love with it, and that’s great, or you might decide it’s not your cup of tea and that’s also fine.
"It’s about giving everything a go, and it’s really one of those things that you don’t know unless you try.’’
The genesis for the refreshed Woolworths NetSetGo came through a national pilot program in 2024, with the revamped Net tier rolled out in 2025 via 45-minute sessions tailored for five to six-year-olds to learn the basics and keep them moving and engaged.
This year, Set (for 7-8-year-olds) and Go (for 9-10-year-olds) will also benefit from improvements designed in partnership with physical literacy experts to further enhance the experience and develop confident, active kids.
“We’re super-excited that we’ve got all three age-specific tiers of the program ready to roll out across this year,” says Netball Australia Head of Participation Nikki Horton.
“It’s fun, it's engaging, it’s inclusive, and there’s a really nice progression throughout the program, meaning you can come in at any stage, or you can start aged five and do it for four or five years before you head onto junior netball.
“It’s also got enough flexibility within the program to suit the community that you’re in and give the coaches and the centre leaders the option to make it their own and adapt it as needed for their group.”
And the best thing about the redesign?
“Now we’ve got alignment to a match play element for both Set and Go tiers,’’ Horton continues.
“Whilst we’ve been really mindful of not going into full blown-competition, there’s a touch of that within both those tiers to start to give players that element of joy of what it feels like to actually take the court - whether it be a little mini-game and then progressing through into Go - to ready them for junior netball.”
Woolworths NetSetGo Program Manager Shelley Dunk, nearing two years in the role, said the changes add a new suite of resources, activities and structures designed to progress children enjoyably and safely through their netball journey.
“The way the program has been redeveloped, is in alignment with how children between the ages of 5-10 grow and learn, while making sure that NetSetGo helps shape them into the future as well,” says Dunk.
“Throughout the reshaping of the program over the last two years, we engaged various experts in the industry to really understand how kids tick, and their families as well.
“One of the core focuses of the program is that everybody’s welcome regardless of your previous experience in netball, and it really does set up a fun environment for you to learn the basics with the aim to build on those throughout your engagement in the program.”
Tayla Williams, the Adelaide Thunderbirds midcourter, will be part of the national Come and Play Day launch in Melbourne, while her teammates visit clubs around South Australia.
"Woolworths NetSetGo is where so many netballers start their journeys and we know it’s important for them to meet athletes who have turned their dreams into careers so they can see what they can achieve,” says Williams, raised on a farm near Balaklava in the state's mid north.
"It's so important that country netballers like myself are part of days like these to show young girls what they can be and I'm looking forward to promoting our national NetSetGo program."
For Grenvold, falling for the sport as a seven or eight-year-old for social as well as sporting and big-sister-related reasons ignited a lifetime passion that has now become a profession.
And with all Woolworths NetSetGoers receiving a branded participant pack that includes a training t-shirt and fidget spinner in the colours of their favourite SSN team, the 22-year-old suggests a reach for, well, the sky.
“ I’m pretty biased, but I will say our NetSetGo top is the absolute best,’’ Grenvold says with a laugh.
“That light blue I think is absolutely stunning, I don’t know why you’d pick any other colour.
“Honestly, it’s the best one!’’
