As we reach the end of another fantastic year for the Netball Family, it only feels right to take the time to reflect and celebrate what we have achieved, whilst also looking ahead with optimism and excitement at what is to come in 2026.
This year we have progressed in all three areas of our strategy: To Grow, To Play and To Inspire.
The strategic area that stands out the most to me this year is play, as we launched our new Global Events Strategy, saw the return of the Netball World Youth Cup for the first time since 2017 and, alongside Netball Australia (NA), launched our Brisbane 2032 Olympic campaign as well as the new format for the Netball World Cup Sydney 2027 (NWC2027).
We also saw world-class international play in all five Regions with 141 World Netball (WN) World Ranking matches taking place between January 2025 and the latest WN World Rankings update on the 1st December.
It was this update that was used to invite the top six teams in the WN World Rankings, including the hosts Australia, to the NWC2027 which will take place from the 25th August – 5th September 2027.
Congratulations to Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, England, South Africa and Uganda who were the six teams that qualified to be invited. The remaining 10 teams will be decided through the five Regional Qualifiers, which will take place next year.
As announced in June, the competition will take place in one venue, with 12 days of thrilling international competition leading us to both a Cup and, for the first time ever, Plate winner.
If the bold NWC2027 brand launch in September to mark two years to go is anything to go by, I think we are in for an unmissable event in Sydney.
We also launched our Global Events Strategy in June, which stated WN’s intentions to host its pinnacle event, the Netball World Cup (NWC), every two years and introduce a new WN event, as well as a new men’s NWC.
We are now in the process of procuring hosts for these three major international events, between 2028-2035, alongside The Sports Consultancy.
This is an essential step for WN in order to futureproof our sport, at a time when the global sporting landscape has never been more challenging. We needed to make bold and decisive decisions to sustain the game in the immediate term and have material impact on the growth of the game in the long term.
Alongside our Global Events Strategy announcement, we also re-affirmed our intention to work alongside NA to continue pursuing the opportunity of netball being included in the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.
We have since worked tirelessly on this campaign with NA, launching a pledge on the final day of the NWYC2025, asking the Netball Family to “Back the Bid”. Over 115,000 have now signed this pledge globally.
We continue to work closely with the International Olympic Committee and Brisbane 2032 Local Organising Committee (LOC), cementing our strong intentions for Olympic inclusion.
Our new Global Events Strategy and Olympic Bid will in turn help us grow our game and inspire the next generation to come, and the NWYC2025 showed what an exciting and talented next generation that is.
WN’s digital channels alone reached over 27 million people during the nine days of competition, with over one million engagements, as Australia were crowned Champions beating New Zealand 48 – 63 in the Final.
Our thanks once again go the hosts Gibraltar and the NWYC2025 Local Organising Committee, who created an unforgettable event for the young players, their families, friends and fans in Gibraltar, and everyone tuning in around the world.
We have continued to grow across the organisation both in terms of Membership, with two new Members, Anguilla and Italy, joining and in the officiating space with various officials being awarded the International Netball Umpire Award (INUA), as well as International Talent Identified (ITID) status, and International Testing Panel (ITP) and ITP Cadet status too.
More exciting news in the officiating space included WN announcing a new deal with KitQueen in partnership with Nike, as the WN officials kit supplier. The officials first wore their new kit at the NWYC2025, and it looked fantastic.
Everything we do is always underpinned by good governance, and this year was no different.
We hosted our virtual Congress in August, where Shirley Hooper was re-elected as Vice President, and Rob Mills was re-appointed as WN’s Independent Director.
43 Members attended as we celebrated the collective commitment of all our national leaders in creating an environment in which lives are changed and talents thrive.
In order to continue to help our Members with all the fantastic work they are doing, in October we launched the second round of our Strategic Development Fund (SDF), which is designed to allow our Members to apply for funding from WN in line with both their own strategy and WN’s.
Applications for the SDF are now closed, with the successful Members to be announced and awarded their Grants in the new year.
This year hasn’t come without its challenges and sadness though, including the sudden passing of our Oceania Regional Director, Wainikiti (Kiti) Bogidrau, who we sorely miss and the devastating hurricane in Jamaica and floods in Sri Lanka, which have impacted thousands of people, with families displaced, homes destroyed and livelihoods shattered.
It was in these times of sadness and difficulty that we saw the true strength of our netball family, and the importance of our core value ‘Friendship’, as we all stood together and supported those that needed it most.
As we look ahead to 2026, we enter the year of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games (CWG), at which we will see hosts Scotland welcome Australia, England, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda and Wales, to compete at the Hydro.
It doesn’t stop in 2026, we are excited that netball has also been announced as a core sport on the CWG programme for the Amdavad (also known as Ahmedabad), India 2030 Games.
You can purchase your tickets for the Glasgow 2026 Games now.
Finally, I want to thank all the Netball Family for embodying our values of Excellence, Teamwork, Integrity, Courage, Athletes and Leadership, in everything that you do.
Without you, there would be no netball.
We look forward to continuing this bold new era with you in 2026 and beyond.
It’s Netball’s Time.