Collingwood to withdraw from Super Netball at end of 2023 season

Collingwood has admitted its failure to run a viable netball program as the club announced it will wind up the Magpies operation at the end of the 2023 Super Netball season.

With four rounds remaining this year and following an internal club review, the club confirmed in a statement on Thursday that it would not seek to renew its licence for the 2024 season and would not return to the sport.

Collingwood pointed the finger at Netball Australia, saying financial challenges experienced by the governing body were in part behind the decision to withdraw, while a “disappointed” governing body claimed shifting priorities away from netball to focus on the club’s core business of football was to blame.

The review, which analysed key aspects of the club’s program and that of Netball Australia, found the netball arm of the AFL club was no longer sustainable.

Collingwood’s chief executive, Craig Kelly, said the decision to fold the operation had been “incredibly difficult” and had “weighed heavily on us”.

“We acknowledge we could have run a better netball program at Collingwood,” Kelly said. “Throughout this process, we met with Netball Australia and SSN on multiple occasions to explore potential solutions.

“The challenges Netball Australia has experienced and continues to experience in terms of profitability combined with the current impasse in regard to finalising the TPA [team participation agreement] and CPA [collective player agreement], played a key role in our decision-making.”

Netball Australia last week posted a financial turnaround of $4.7m in 2022, helping to ease fears over its future viability after the previous year’s results sparked an existential crisis for the sport.

Negotiations are under way with interested