Is it time to ditch the dress?

(Photo: UTS Randwick Sparks FB page)

Netball Australia finally released their 2020 State of the Game review led by former Diamonds captain, Liz Ellis. It marked the largest scale-independent review in sports history with more than 10,000 participants including netball fans, participants and volunteers who helped assess the state of the game amid the pandemic.

The independent review made eight recommendations to Netball Australia that will address both internal and external challenges they’ve identified. The recommendations included the establishment of aligned vision for the sport, streamlined communication and greater diversity and inclusion of the sport. 

Netball Uniform Calls for More Diversity and Inclusion

Part of the findings showed that the uniform was turning some players away.

"The uniform is just a small component of what the sport can do better but it is an important part for some people," Ellis said.

"Some people don't want to play because they don't like the uniform, so, again, we've asked netball to be more flexible in allowing people to wear what they want to wear."

Netball Australia reiterated that no blanket changes will be implemented anytime soon whether it be on uniforms and other aspects of the report as it still needs to be discussed first with stakeholders and state bodies.

What netballers think about this?

We recently created a poll on our social channels to ask the netball community about this topic. Majority of the participants answered they’d rather wear the standard dress and skirt. Whilst about 20% are open to new changes and 10% answered in between.

 

Here are some of their comments:

On our Facebook page,  followers have different views about it but the majority of them still said no.They also added, changes on netball dress sizes can be done but don’t ditch the skirt.

Some followers  from the ‘Yes’ team mentioned, it’s upon the discretion of the player or club/association that she belongs to.