Tuesday’s Anzac Day clash between Collingwood and Super Netball rival Sunshine Coast Lightning is more than just a game for Magpie Ash Brazill.
For Brazill, it’s personal, as her great-grandfather Victor Charles served during World War II, joining the war at 16.
Collingwood netballer Ash Brazill at the Shrine of Remembrance. Credit: Wayne Taylor
“For me to be able to play on Anzac Day is really special because I’m not just playing for the men and women that have served, and are still serving, but also to know that my great-grandfather did that, so I’m able to live the life that I live now,” Brazill said. “So to now actually be able to celebrate on, not just a footy field but also our game day, being on a netball court … What Tuesday will represent is that this is more than a game.”
As one of Australia’s most accomplished dual sport athletes – a Commonwealth Games gold medal winner with the Diamonds and an AFLW footballer with Collingwood – Brazill is in a unique position to chart the growth of women’s sport.
That netball has its own Anzac Day fixture is symbolic of its important place in Australian sport, she says, but she wants more teams added to the Super Netball competition and hopes it will become impossible, as each code becomes fully professional, for athletes like her to play more than one sport at the elite level.
“I really do hope one day that you can’t do it because both sports are just as professional as the other and I think that day is coming … and I’m just very fortunate that I was able to do it when I could do it,” said Brazill, who has announced she will retire from netball at the end of the season but will continue her AFLW career.
Balancing family life – she and wife Brooke have Louis, 3, and Frankie, 1 – with not one, but two sporting careers, has its challenges.
Victor Charles Carter (centre), great-grandfather of Collingwood netballer Ash Brazill, served in World War II.
Brazill said more teams need to be introduced to the competition for netball to keep pace with other codes, such AFLW and the Women’s Big Bash League.
“I would say our league is currently No.1 in the world when it comes to the athletes. I think that’s exciting because I think that’s pretty rare to get that in Australia, having the best competition in the world,” said Brazill, who would like to coach at Super Netball level after her playing career.
“But I can’t wait to see extra teams added to our league because there are only 80 spots, and we have 25 internationals. It’s pretty hard as an Australian to get one of those 55 spots that are left.
Ash Brazill with her children after the round three Super Netball match between West Coast Fever and Collingwood. Credit: Getty Images
“I think we definitely need some more teams for the Australian pool, one, so there’s more spots for the athletes, but two, we’re still setting up the Diamonds to be a strong team when it comes to world netball.
“So, we definitely need extra teams, but I think at the moment we’re in a pretty good space and I hope we continue heading in that direction because it would be such a shame to see netball slip off the radar.”
Brazill recalled her first experience at a Collingwood-Essendon Anzac Day match, and hopes an annual Collingwood-Lightning fixture will create its own tradition.
“You talk to the boys about playing in that game, and they say it’s pretty much better than a grand final, or it feels like a grand final because you don’t get these games that are sold out, you don’t get these rivalries against other clubs like that because it’s bigger than the game,” she said.
“And I think for netball, we’ve never really had that … So now to have another game that will have been such a significant day, for us, it’s massive, and I really hope that one day it can be as big as Collingwood-Essendon. And I hope it sticks with Collingwood-Lightning because we already have such a rivalry against each other.
“The fact that netball is now a part of all these other codes that do it, I think we’re definitely heading in the right direction and really puts us on the sporting map.”
Collingwood Magpies host Sunshine Coast Lightning at John Cain Arena at 1:00pm, before the blockbuster men’s AFL game at the MCG at 3.20pm. In the NRL, Melbourne Storm host the Warriors at AAMI Park from 7pm.
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