The Malta Netball Association is looking to put behind it the ramifications of the Covid-19 crisis as its new committee, formed around two months ago, is working on an agenda to bring local netball to a higher level. 

The association held talks with SportMalta, Parliamentary Secretary for Sport Clifton Grima and Shadow Minister for Sport Robert Cutajar to showcase netball to more prospective players.

The association’s president Jose Borg told the Sunday Times of Malta that expansion of the sport is one of their main priorities.

“We’ve held discussions with SportMalta to include netball in schools. There are some (schools) playing but we want it to become extracurricular so that we can increase the number of children playing the sport,” Borg said.

“That’s a main priority so that we can expand our nurseries because at the moment, we’ve only got four teams playing in the Under-17 league, so growing here would be a victory towards achieving our goal.

“I think it would also give players more motivation. The national U-17 team played abroad recently but we want to take it further and compete with the seniors as well but we’ve got a huge a financial obstacle to overcome. We’re trying to find partners to help us out here.”

This month, the Government announced it will be investing nine million euros into a new sports centre in Marsa ahead of the Small Nations Games in 2023. One of the sports mentioned by Parliamentary Secretary Grima was in fact netball. Borg said that with this, the association will have new premises, clubhouse as well as two courts. 

“It’s a positive thing for us even if according to the plans, the courts we’ll be given are open-air which is a bit irrelevant as netball is played indoors. But we’ll be taking it further so that this can be improved,” he admitted.

The Covid-19 restrictions have been a two-way street for the association. Just like any other sport, the netball season was halted back in March and Borg explained that all options were given to the local clubs to establish the best conclusion. 

“The league had been around its 60% mark as the second round had only just started so as a committee, we decided to speak to the clubs individually and get their ideas,” Borg explained.

“Eventually, there was a unanimous decision to decide the league according to first round results and so we awarded champions for the first and second division, also giving promotion and relegation using the same system. Cooperation with the clubs was very positive.”

On the other hand, discussion on an international stage has been facilitated through the virtual nature which is turning into the norm following the virus’s restrictions. 

“Luckily, certain things are being done online and financially, it helps because we don’t really need to go abroad,” he remarked.

Borg explained that the present committee is working to improve upon the work done by the previous administration in terms of umpiring, and the qualification of 13 C-awarded umpires. The association is also planning to re-hold the C-award qualification for new prospective umpires as well as working to have B-awarded umpires in the future.

“Netball Europe are really helping us out and through our meetings, we’ve arranged to have coaches come from abroad (when borders are opened again) to teach our local coaches,” he said. 

“This is something we want – Maltese coaches should become certified and get their badges.” 

Sport promotion

An issue which works hand in hand with the growth of any sport is how countries rank internationally. 

While the association’s committee is working towards promoting the sport to as many areas as possible through their socials, Borg admitted the country needs to start competing again especially because with now competitive matches played since 2015, Malta has dropped out of the world rankings.

“At the moment, we’re not competing, and so rankings suffer. So, the first thing we must do is to think about how we can start playing again,” he said.

“Obviously you can’t compete without any financial help. There were times where the players would travel to compete out of their own pocket which is 
far from the ideal situation considering that you’re out there competing internationally as a representative of your country.

“Obviously, we can’t really pair ourselves with teams like Australia (ranked first in the world) or New Zealand (second) but we’re trying to revive the national team. This way we can increase enthusiasm for young players to want to play for the national team.”

Borg said his committee’s next step is to continue improving the association’s administration with the hope of the green light for the league in the coming months. 

“We’re estimating that the league can restart in October, hopefully without much restriction,” he explained.

“Eventually we can launch an expression of interest for the national team.

“As yet, the (netball) courts are ready for training at club level so we’ll be identifying a coach for the national team who will have to start from the beginning and find suitable players for the team.”