As almost 25,000 spectators crammed into Ikon Park to watch the inaugural AFL Women's match, the powerbrokers of a rival female sport set to launch its new bells-and-whistles competition a fortnight later would have been forgiven for combining a slight case of the jitters with their Friday night chardonnay. A crowd lockout, endeavour, emotion, and a TV ratings triumph? Glug. Gulp.
Yet Netball Australia's acting chief executive, Marne Fechner, one of the architects of the groundbreaking Super Netball league designed to usher in a bold and soon to-be-fully-professional new age, took a more philosophical view.
Magpies netball team: the sport is finally getting the coverage it deserves.Credit:Eddie Jim
"I think from a women's sport perspective, it's fantastic what's happening across cricket, AFL and what will be with netball," said Fechner. "It was history being made last week and that was a fantastic thing, but we will continue to set KPIs around the product that we know, and what we want to do.
"Are we concerned or worried about it? We think it's fantastic for women's sport, and (happy) if it puts the spotlight on the athleticism and the fierceness of female athletes' competition. AFL Women's was fierce, but anyone that's been around a netball court in the last decade will know that it's just as fierce on a netball court and it's our job to take it to more eyeballs than we had before."
More than 40,000 packed Ikon Park to watch Carlton and Collingwood women kick-off the season.Credit:Joe Castro
There are two elements to this: the push for crowds, viewers, oxygen and sponsorship dollars at the pointy end, and the increased competition for the best talent at the pyramid's base. Netball has long dominated female participation numbers nationwide, but girls and women have never had so many options, or opportunities to make a living from so many team sports.
Not much of a living, yet, from football, but give it time. Netball, too, had to start somewhere, to get to the current average wage of $67,500 for year one of the domestic league that shed the New Zealand element, and a minimum that has more than doubled to $27,375. Not eye-watering numbers, but a decent improvement on what has been, and a big step towards the full professionalism that is scheduled to come within five years.
So if we assume there is room for both sports in a newly-crowded marketplace, perhaps the bigger issue is where the best athletes will go. Football has recruited from all over, including soccer and basketball, but not, yet, from elite netball. But what will all this look like in a decade? Which direction will those starting out now take and how dramatically will netball's talent pool shrink as a consequence?
Fechner is not just adamant that "netball is part of Australian women's DNA", but committed to ensuring it remains so. "Netball's very aware and understanding of its demographic and what makes our sport appealing and unique and that's not gonna change," she said, pointing out that the rules restricting players to certain court areas means no one individual can ever completely dominate.
Timing issues are also interesting. When Super Netball, to be broadcast by Nine and Telstra, chose its mid-February post-tennis and Big Bash dates, in order to also squeeze half its season in before the start of the AFL and NRL proper, AFLW had not even been born. Now, it has the jump, and some serious momentum, and there will be a six-week overlap when both are going head-to-head.
There is a bigger picture; Super Netball is just one element.
A significant one, though, funded by a record, long-overdue broadcast deal, and having attracted teams backed or owned by Collingwood, the GWS Giants and Melbourne Storm (on the Sunshine Coast), to add to the existing teams based in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Saturday week's opening round will feature the three state derbies, including Saturday's Giants-Swifts opener followed by the Pies-Vixens before a full house at Hisense Arena later that night.
"In hindsight it's worked out really well for us," said Fechner, noting AFLW's successful kick-off. "We'll be presenting our own Australian-owned product come the 18th of February, and it is an evolution and an exciting new venture for us, but we also recognise that Netball Australia turns 90 this year, so netball's been doing this for 90 years and in terms of our professional leagues for at least the last 20, so it's a new version of that. It's going to be extremely exciting and I think the rivalries, particularly in these states with two teams now, will mean more to fans."
Yet if all are in furious agreement that it will be a wondrous day if/when sportswomen, like men, get to choose their career paths not just on the basis of ability but also the financial rewards to be had, let's ask that first question again: was Fechner even a tiny bit unsettled by what she saw on the first weekend of AFLW? What was really going through her mind?
"I was thinking: how do we get a bigger venue? And that is a challenge for our sport, we're an indoor sport, the biggest venue in the country is 17,000 in NSW," she said. "And everyone buys a ticket to come to the netball. I understand what the AFL have done in terms of making it open and accessible and free to the public, but for us in the 15-plus years since the Commonwealth Bank Trophy, there's always been a value associated with a ticket to netball and for us it's about transitioning from smaller venues to those bigger venues.
"But, God, it would be fantastic if we could have a 25,000-seat stadium somewhere, because I'm sure at some point in time that will be where we want the sport to head."
Linda Pearce is the Chief Tennis Writer and general sports reporter for The Age. She writes about a range of sports, including football, netball, and gymnastics. Linda has twice been named Australian tennis writer of the year.