Netball

During the Commonwealth Games we were totally baffled by the sport of Netball. This is a sport similar to basketball that Australian women play in spandex skirts. It was obviously a sport that does not lend itself well to the highlights reel, as all we saw on the news was women standing under the hoop putting the ball in the net while other women looked on and did nothing.

We decided to broaden our sporting horizons and checked out a game of the Queensland Firebirds vs. the Sydney Swifts. And the game is definitely much more exciting than we thought, as much of the excitement and action occurs in the middle of the court. It is essentially basketball with the following differences (as far as we can tell):

• The ball is heavier than a basketball
• The ball is passed, not dribbled
• You can only hold the ball for a few seconds, which makes for a very fast pace
• The “net” has no backboard (which makes it harder to shoot)
• Only a couple of people can be in the “crease” at the same time. Once someone catches the ball inside the “crease” nobody can move their feet and you have to check people from where your feet are planted (hence the whole “people shooting while others do nothing” that we saw)
• The same person scores virtually all the points for the team.
• And finally, the audience was almost entirely female. Lots of mothers and daughters bonding over sport.

The Sydney captain, Liz Ellis, is also the Team Australia captain, and is better known for being in every food product advertisement currently on Australian television.