Caitlin Bassett: Emerging WA netballers will miss out on vital learnings and assistance after WAIS call

When I first broke into the Australian team, I was the only West Australian playing for the Diamonds. It meant I had no one to train with back at home when I was preparing for international tournaments. Thankfully, I had a West Australian Institute of Sport netball scholarship, which gave me access to training facilities and a coach – Diamonds great Michelle Wilkins – who was an incredible mentor and helped me prepare to perform at the highest level. I will never forget our court work sessions, Michelle would pass the ball and we would drag a green wheelie bin into the circle in place of a defender that I would have to work around. Michelle had a rocket for an arm, and if I dropped a pass or missed a shot, I would have to start the drill again, we would sometimes be at it for hours. The program provided me with the support I needed to live life as an elite athlete, not just access to coaches and facilities but wellbeing and career education to help me manage my world off the court. I had access to everything I needed to succeed, it was an amazing program that helped launch my career. When I left the Fever, WAIS was again a place for me to train for Diamonds commitments while I was spending time with family around Christmas. And it gave me a great opportunity to mingle with our State’s best athletes and build relationships outside of netball. The institute even used to have a team playing in the State league, which was a great talent development tool for our young stars. Now, emerging WA netballers are going to miss out on a lot of that. The decision by WAIS to dump its netball program after four decades is disappointing, to say the least. It’s not entirely surprising, because WAIS’ focus is on preparing athletes for the Olympics, but it is worth remembering their is a strong push for netball to be a part of the Games — at least as an exhibition sport — by the time the eyes of the world turn to Brisbane in eight years. I would love to see netball in the Olympics and I would love to see our players supported as if it was an Olympic sport. It’s worth remembering that not every athlete has a traditional pathway to the top and not all of them end up at a Super Netball club as a teenager. Players like Diamonds shooter Donnell Wallam don’t emerge until they are mature-aged recruits picked up by clubs. There’s a risk now players like her might be missed by our talent pathways. The call is going to stretch the resources of the West Coast Fever and Netball WA really thin. Think of Fever staff like player development manager. Someone working with the 12 players on the Fever list is now going to take on the responsibility of an extra eight or more players. The gym at the State Netball Centre, which is already a tight squeeze, is going to be harder and harder to get access to for players on the fringes or outside the Fever squad. Given we don’t know whether or not netball will feature when the Olympics come to Brisbane in eight years’ time, this is a frustrating and strange decision and is a loss for some of our best up-and-coming athletes.