Netball boss takes a brutal swipe at players after Gina Rinehart terminated sponsorship

The CEO of the Australian Netball Players Association has broken her silence on the fallout of a $15million sponsorship saying the Diamonds had never ‘turned their back on the money’ and had agreed to wear the uniform bearing a controversial logo. 

Kathyrn Williams, the head of the Australian Netball Players Association, said the players had agreed to wear a uniform with the Hancock Prospecting logo against New Zealand in the Constellation Cup. 

It was previously reported the women’s team had refused to wear the uniform in support of their teammate, Indigenous Australian player Donnell Wallam. 

Ms Williams told the Today Show the compromise was that Ms Wallam would not be required to wear the logo in the upcoming series against England. 

‘The commitment with Netball Australia is we could then to table post the international window to discuss the partnership and the sensitivities to work out how we can come to an arrangement that satisfies all parties to move forward,’ she said. 

It’s really important to put that on the table. It was never about environmental issues, either. It was a First Nations issue with Donell Wallam seeking an exemption to start with because she had a conscientious objection to the partnership.’

Ms Wallam was reportedly uncomfortable wearing the Hancock Prospecting logo due to racist comments made about Indigenous Australians by Gina Rinehart’s father Lang Hancock in the 1980s.

Hancock Prospecting pulled the lucrative $15million partnership deal on Saturday claiming in a statement it ‘does not want to add to netball’s disunity problems’. 

Ms Williams said the players had a ‘sister-in-arms mantra’ and they didn’t want their only Indigenous player to make her debut wearing a different uniform to them. 

‘Unfortunately things have been derailed and I don’t know what happened with that agreement with Netball Australia in the first instance,’ she said. 

‘It got to the point in the end where Donnell herself was simply seeking an exemption and everyone thought that was a fair and reasonable request for one player to not wear the logo.

Ms Williams said the exemption was denied to the point where ‘it was all too much for Donnell’ who finally agreed to wear the uniform despite her objections. 

‘I don’t know what happened from the time Donnell said she would wear the logo as would the team to Hancock moving on,’ she said. 

She said other sponsors had already showed interest in sponsoring the side but said it was ‘disappointing’ to lose the money, especially after all parties had come to an agreement. 

Meanwhile West Coast Fever CEO Simone Hansen has declared players need to be better educated about the value of the sponsorship dollar .

‘Our West Coast Fever and Netball WA, and you can take it much broader than just netball, is very reliant on the mining industry and the success they have,’ Hansen told ABC.

‘Healthways (a government sponsored health promotion agency) are a key sponsor of ours as well – so we don’t talk to alcohol, we don’t talk to fast food and we don’t talk to gambling (for sponsorship money).

‘Our players and our playing group have been and remain 100 per cent behind the partnership that we had with Roy Hill.

‘I wish there was (other companies throwing money at netball). It is hard.

‘I’d love all players of netball across Australia to understand – I’m pretty confident that our West Coast Fever players have that understanding and appreciation … that it’s not that simple.

‘Money doesn’t grow on trees. We need to go out there and work hard and build relationships and get companies to understand the value of being involved in women’s sport and netball in particular – it’s not an easy task.

‘Everyone needs to consider bringing money into sport isn’t easy – bringing sponsorship money into female sport is even harder.  

‘We don’t have the same viewership, we don’t have the same broadcast money coming into netball as male sports do. We need to be, and I need all our players at the national and state level, to be mindful of that because we want to provide the best high performance systems for our players.

‘We want the right programs and opportunities for them, and also provide our players a reasonable pay – but that all costs money.

‘There are going to be consequences of this (dress row with potential future sponsors) – everybody, not just the administration but the playing group need to understand that there are consequences when things like this play out in the media.

‘I think it’s going to be a more challenging landscape for netball, especially in the short term as we work through this.’