Netball Australia has secured a $15m sponsorship deal with Visit Victoria, just days after Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting axed a $15m funding deal with the sport following a dramatic and public falling out.
Earlier this month, foxsports.com.au first revealed Diamonds players, who last night sealed a 2-0 series win over the England Roses with a game to play, had strong concerns over extremely racist comments from the mining giant’s late founder Lang Hancock. Among other statements, Hancock called for the sterilisation of Australia’s First Nations people.
In the 1980s, he stated: “The ones that are no good to themselves and can’t accept things, the half-castes — and this is where most of the trouble comes — I would dope the water up so that they were sterile and would breed themselves out in future and that would solve the problem.”
Billionaire Hancock owner Gina Rinehart, who has never publicly addressed her father’s comments, tore up the company’s sponsorship deal with Netball Australia as well as sponsorship deals (through Roy Hill) with Netball WA and Super Netball champions West Coast Fever.
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Donnell Wallam last week became just the third Indigenous player to represent the Diamonds after Sharon Finnan-White and Marcia Ella-Duncan, scoring a matchwinner shot on the buzzer against England in the series opener. Wallam had privately aired her concerns about Hancock’s history with teammates and Netball Australia, asking to be exempt from wearing the Hancock logo.
The request – supported fully by her teammates – was denied by Netball Australia, with Wallam reportedly willing to back down on the request after a public storm erupted.
Visit Victoria will now sponsor the Diamonds on a deal running to 2027 – two years longer than the previous Hancock agreement – providing a much-needed lifeline for the cash-strapped Netball Australia.
The deal, which begins in 2023, will see the Diamonds play at least one test match a year in the state for five years. The Diamonds will also hold training camps in Victoria, as well as appear in tourism campaigns and wear branding on their playing uniforms.
Next year’s Super Netball Grand Final will also be hosted in Victoria, after this year’s final was held in Perth when Western Australia bought hosting rights for the decider – the first time the match’s location had been up for sale, rather than decided by competition results.
Netball Australia CEO Kelly Ryan said a number of potential partners had reached out following Hancock’s stunning decision to withdraw from the sponsorship agreement.
Ryan said the Visit Victoria deal was “unlike any that we’ve done before”, and was “very different” to mining company’s sponsorship.
“So [they] cannot be compared in any way, shape or form, they’re two very, very different partnerships,” she said.
“And this partnership values the content that we offer, so everything from pathway events, through to the elite competition.”
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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews labelled it a “coup” for the state.
“We are the sporting and major events capital of our nation … to be able to have the world’s very best netball team wearing our logo, projecting all that we offer to the world and the rest of the country, is absolutely fantastic,” he said.
Diamonds captain Liz Watson said in a statement: “This is a significant partnership for the Origin Australian Diamonds as we prepare to defend our Commonwealth Games gold medal in Victoria in 2026.
“Visit Victoria is a proud supporter of netball and this investment will benefit all levels of our game.”
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