Sports Minister defends ‘difficult’ decision to cut WAIS netball program, casts doubt on Olympic bid

Sports Minister David Templeman has vowed to “never give up on netball”, after the WA Institute of Sport made the “difficult” choice to cut the high-performance program from its list, despite a 40-year history of supporting athletes. The decision, revealed on Wednesday, sparked outrage from former netballer Caitlin Bassett, who called it “frustrating and strange”. Netball WA confirmed the end of its relationship with WAIS and expressed its “incredibly disappointed” in the decision. Asked in Question Time about Bassett’s comments by Nationals MP Peter Rundle, Mr Templeman said he had asked his Department to work with Netball WA on future support, but stood by the decision of the independent board. “They are a signature to the Australian Sports Commission High Performance 2032 Strategy — which of course, underpins a principle of prioritising Olympic Paralympic sports — so it is their key principle,” he said. “WAIS provides support for individual sports, and yes, they have been for some time, been supporting netball as an individual sport, along with some others. “But they also provide programs for individual athletes, and they will continue to do that for individual athletes in netball. “The difference is that the sport, and this was a difficult decision by the independent WAIS board no longer support the sport as a sport in their entities.” The WAIS netball program will run until the end of April to help the under-age teams prepare for next year’s national netball championships. Under the scholarship, athletes have access to the “Performance Enhancement Team,” which gives them access to strength and conditioning, sports science, and sports medicine services such as physiology, psychology, biomechanics, sports nutrition, and physiotherapy. WAIS has partnered with Netball WA throughout the entire 40 years of the program and is set to leave the sport’s state governing body to foot the bill for a development program going forward. Bassett, a former WAIS scholarship holder, wrote in her piece emerging WA netballers would miss out on vital assistance after theb WAIS decision. “The program provided me with the support I needed to live life as an elite athlete, not just access to coaches and facilities but wellbeing and career education to help me manage my world off the court,” she wrote. “It’s not entirely surprising, because WAIS’ focus is on preparing athletes for the Olympics, but it is worth remembering their is a strong push for netball to be a part of the Games — at least as an exhibition sport — by the time the eyes of the world turn to Brisbane in eight years. “Given we don’t know whether or not netball will feature when the Olympics come to Brisbane in eight years’ time, this is a frustrating and strange decision and is a loss for some of our best up-and-coming athletes.” Mr Templeman said netball could struggle to Olympics because it was not “predominantly played around the world by men”. “In terms of 2032 what you got to understand is, and is, and this is the interesting thing about netball, as you know, it, is a female dominated sport, and has been for its history, and that has been one of its that’s been one of its impediments for inclusion in the Olympic program,” he said. “It is the impediment because it is not a sport that is predominantly played around the world by men. It’s one of those interesting situations. “The campaign is not just Netball WA, I might say it’s Netball Australia, and it is the worldwide network of netball that has the case to make for inclusion in 2032.”