The Geelong Netball Club has hosed down suggestions it could join Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) for 2024 in the wake of Collingwood leaving the competition.
Netball Victoria released a statement on Tuesday saying it is committed to two Victorian teams in the competition and it is looking to regional Victoria.
“We have informed Netball Australia that our number one priority is to ensure that we keep two SSN licences in Victoria in 2024 and beyond,” Netball Victoria CEO Andrea Pearman said.
“The new team would ideally be based in regional Victoria, where netball has a huge grassroots base.”
However, Geelong Netball Club president Darren Hellmann said that although the club’s long term goal includes an SSN licence by 2028, it is entirely dependent on a suitable stadium being available.
“If you don’t have a stadium, you don’t have a chance,” he said.
“We do want to go down that track but all the dominoes have to line up and the biggest domino is the stadium.
“It is just not practical for 2024…I don’t think any new team would be able to get up in such a short time.”
Mr Hellmann said he is optimistic that one of the local venues for the 2026 Commonwealth Games may be suitable for netball afterwards, but is unsure where that may be.
“It is firmly dependant on having a stadium with a capacity of 3,000 to 4,000 spectators, as well as training and gym facilities,” he said.
The Geelong Arena seats 2,000 people.
The only facility that meets the criteria in regional Victoria is Bendigo’s Red Energy Stadium, which has been selected for the netball venue for the Commonwealth Games.
Bendigo Football and Netball League said it is not part of their structure to be involved in the SSN, but said with such strong local support for netball and with the Commonwealth Games coming up, Bendigo is certainly capable of hosting SSN games.
“We are ready to take on an additional SSN licence and have proven form to set up and build a successful team,” the Netball Victoria statement said, suggesting it could assist in setting up a team from scratch.
Red Energy Stadium says it has not had any contact from Netball Victoria, but Director of Commonwealth Games at City of Greater Bendigo, Andrew Cooney, said yesterday the city is very interested in being involved.
“We’re interested in the statement that came out yesterday from Netball Vic around some collaboration and we’d love to be part of it in some way, shape or form,” he said.
It is unlikely that Bendigo could get a new team up in time for the 2024 season, though.
“We’re happy to keep working with Netball Vic and the state government as much as we can to listen to what they’d need, but there’s a whole bidding process that I think we’d have to go through and I’m not sure what that process looks like,” Mr Cooney said.
“It’s very early days.”
Image: Geelong Netball Club (File).