Netball Tasmania would like to advise that a formal response will not be submitted to Netball Australia’s RFP process to appoint an 8th license in the Suncorp Super Netball Competition for 2024.
Over the past month Netball Tasmania have had constant dialogue with both Netball Australia and the Tasmanian Government to fully explore Tasmania as a potential market for an SSN team. All parties agree on the many benefits of Tasmania as a home for SSN and the strength and passion of the netball community here. Ultimately this is simply a matter of the timing being not quite right.
Mitch Coulson, Netball Tasmania CEO was upbeat about the future of elite netball in Tasmania.
“Over the last month we have compiled the foundations of a very compelling case for SSN in Tasmania, and whilst we are not making a formal submission now due to the time constraints involved, we are confident about the future prospect of our own SSN team in Tasmania”.
“We know that Netball Australia do want to expand the SSN competition in the very near future, and I can assure everyone in Tasmania that we are working in close partnership with the Tasmanian Government to ensure that we are at the front of the queue”.
Coulson’s sentiment was echoed by Minister for Sport and Recreation Nic Street:
“The Tasmanian Government is proud of its ongoing support of Netball in this state.
“Our ambition is to continue to work in partnership with Netball Tasmania to strengthen the high-performance programs for netballers in Tasmania and help create the pathway that leads us towards our own SSN team here.”
Minister Street also touched on what the immediate future of netball in Tasmania looked like following the withdrawal of Collingwood from the SSN competition.
“Whilst it was a shame to see Collingwood exit the competition, we all saw the strength and support for elite netball in Tasmania at the weekend with a sell-out crowd at the Silverdome.
“We will continue to work with Netball Tasmania and Netball Australia to ensure we can bring elite level netball to this state,” Minister Street said.
Netball Tasmania is looking forward to the future and collaborating with our entire network to help realise the netball aspirations of all within our community.
