West Australian Institute of Sport cuts its netball program after more than 40 years

The Western Australian Institute of Sport has made the shock call to end its netball program after more than 40 years. The West Australian understands the 10 athletes and their parents who are currently in the program were told about the decision on Tuesday night. It is believed the decision to pull the program is because netball is not an Olympic or Paralympic sport and they’re directing funding to those sports that are. Netball WA confirmed the end of its relationship with WAIS and said it is “incredibly disappointed” by the decision. The WAIS netball program is believed to be worth about $150,000 a year and has helped produce athletes such as former Diamonds captain Caitlin Bassett, Australian defender Courtney Bruce as well as current West Coast Fever skipper Jess Anstiss and teammate Sunday and Ruth Aryang. It is understood the 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 athletes 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. Netball WA chief executive Simone Hansen said the relationship had been integral in its growth of talent and participation. “Netball has been associated with WAIS since 1984 and to end our relationship after 40 years is a blow to netball in Western Australia and the development of WA netball talent,” she said in a statement provided to The West Australian. “We have worked well in partnership with WAIS as well as invested significantly to improve our pathway in recent years and our results at an underage national level is testament to that work. “We are also seeing the benefit of that investment with more WA talent representing Australia at open and under-age levels and more West Australians playing in the world’s best netball league, Suncorp Super Netball.” WAIS boss Matt Fulton said the decision was not an easy one, but was made because netball is not an Olympic or Paralympic sport. “WAIS has had a longstanding, valued partnership with Netball WA and Netball Australia and the decision to discontinue the services program was not made lightly,” he said. “WAIS is funded to support the high-performance sporting system and as netball is not included in the Olympic or Paralympic Games format, the difficult decision has been made to discontinue the WAIS netball services program. “Netball has developed exponentially as a sport since the program started at WAIS almost four decades ago and continues to move towards a fully professional era. “With Netball WA managing all player development programs since 2017 and all WAIS athletes already part of the West Coast Fever Academy Program, I am confident emerging and developing netball athletes will continue to receive the holistic high-performance support they need to realise their potential.” Hansen said Netball WA would now “explore ways to continue to develop these athletes without any drop off in the quality of the program” but is bracing for a financial hit. “This will mean we must increase our investment across strength and conditioning, medical, athlete wellbeing, nutrition and performance psychology, which will have a significant financial impact on our business,” she said. “Aside from the financial impact, we are extremely concerned that our athletes do not have the facilities they require at the Gold Netball Centre, in particular strength and conditioning facilities. “We will look to work with the State Government, VenuesWest and WAIS to determine what the short and long term solutions are before the transition period ends in April 2025.” Netball has the highest participation rate among females in Western Australia. There is a push for netball to be included in the 2032 Olympics Games which will be held in Brisbane, but World Netball is recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). WAIS and Netball WA have been contacted for comment.