T-shirts, leggings and skorts provide glimpse of truly inclusive future for netball

Start a conversation about netball anywhere and the anecdotes will start to flow.

My daughter gave it up when she was 13 because she was so self-conscious.

I wanted to come back after I had a baby but the idea of having to wear a dress at the age of 42 was just too daunting, so I never did.

The association’s rules were so strict, they even dictated what colour briefs we had to wear under our skirts!

As a young person coming to grips with my sexuality and how I wanted to present myself to the world, the girly skirts really put me off.

The dresses and skirts traditionally worn by netballers and the rigid rules around them have been the sartorial elephant in the room for the number one female team sport in Australia for decades; the reason cited more than any other for dropping out at all levels.

Anecdotal evidence, industry reports – such as Netball Australia’s 2020 State of the Game – and academic research – such as Victoria University’s 2021 What Girls Want in Sport Uniforms study – have shown uniform anxiety forces many women and girls to walk away from netball.

The reasons can be personal or religious, but either way they’re powerful and have proved to be a handbrake on the growth of the game, as well as a way to unfairly pigeonhole netball as old-fashioned and overly feminised The modern game is neither.

That’s why the decision by three elite sides to wear “inclusive” uniforms during a pre-season competition on the Gold Coast over the weekend – on the back of a move by the game’s governing body to update uniform rules last year – matters so much.

It’s the moment netball said: “This is a sport for everyone.”

While different state and territory associations and local competitions across the country have eased