CHAMPIONSHIP-winning star Laura Geitz believes regional areas like the Illawarra have every right to a place in the new Australian netball league in future.
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Speaking in Wollongong while at a clinic with The Disability Trust Eagles squad, Geitz is adamant the sport still has another level to rise to in the Australian landscape.
Geitz won the past two ANZ Championship trophies with the Queensland Firebirds, retaining their crown in a double-extra time thriller against arch-rivals NSW Swifts in July.
The competition has undergone a dramatic overhaul and will feature teams backed by AFL heavyeights Greater Western Sydney and Collingwood, as well as a new Queensland Sunshine Coast club funded by the NRL’s Melbourne Storm.
An Illawarra consortium launched an unsuccessful bid for a team in the new league, but Geitz believes netball’s popularity will continue to snowball, allowing scope for further expansion.
“For sure,” Geitz said.
“I’m from country Queensland, so having a regional team at the Sunny Coast is great, but there are other regional centres that have so many skillful kids and obviously it’s exactly the same down here. It would be great to see in years to come, more and more teams pop up and hopefully we have something like the NRL in years to come. We’ve spoken so much about netball being the sleeping giant of Australian sport and I think it’s slowly working up and it continues to gain momentum.”
Geitz maintains the financial clout of AFL and NRL clubs in the eight-team league, will help put netball closer to an equal footing with their male counterparts as a professional sport.
“Having someone like Collingwood come in, it’s huge,” she said.
“There’s an opportunity for the girls to be paid professional wages in years to come. It’s a step in the right direction.
“We have got to continue keeping our product exciting.”
Geitz declared the 69-67 win over the Swifts, a year after they produced a remarkable comeback to win last year’s title, was the most special win of her career.
“I’ve never played in a game like that in my life,” she said.
The flow-on effect of the grand final has seen a boost interest at a grassroots level, in junior competitions – already boasting huge participation numbers – and clinics like with The Disability Trust, Geitz said.
“I’ve been blown away by the support,” she said.
“Any clinics or events I’ve been to, you can see the excitement and interest filter all the way down through the grassroots level.”
