Australia
A council has approved 16 homes to be built on land that was significantly flooded in the Murray River town of Echuca during last year's flood.
Ten months of pain and suffering could be heard in the voice of Leigh Wilson as he addressed the inquiry into the 2022 devastating Victorian floods.
Two regional teams set to join the Victorian Netball League hope to tap into a groundswell of support for women's sport.
Australia is back on top of the netball world after claiming the 2023 title in Cape Town overnight by humbling England 61-45.
An “incredible” team effort saw Australia overcome Jamaica in the semi-final of the World Cup, booking the Diamonds a place in the final.
For many players, the netball dress is a 'favourite outfit ever'. But until now the sport's feminine uniforms have excluded some ...
Summer sport in the northern hemisphere means red-eyed mornings for Australian fans. Here, dedicated night-shifters share their tips.
Concerns over salary caps and a player points system are spreading - and one community football league has decided to de-affiliate.
A leading sports psychologist says the many curveballs thrown by this year's season underlines the importance of "the mental game".
Will Whiteacre sometimes imagines he is Brodie Roberts, slicing through the goal circle before turning and shooting a goal with perfect form.
We look at the "super influence" of the super shot, marvel at Swift Maddy Proud's round 3 performance, and look at "dead ball time."
The decals remained in place, the lights stayed on and the centre passes flowed as expected in round three, as the focus returned to the court.
One of Australia's pre-eminent concussion researchers says Super Netball needs to walk the walk on brain injury and tighten its protocols.
Round two of Super Netball didn't have an official theme, but it could be dubbed the "fiasco round" after a sequence of embarrassing incidents.
We dissect the drama and crunch the data from a controversial round of Super Netball, looking at who would have won TBirds v Swifts and more.
The Melbourne Vixens are remaining tight-lipped about the nature and extent of the leg injury being managed by shooter Rahni Samason.
We assess the statistical narratives that emerged from the opening round; dynamic defenders, perfect shooters and the best "turnarounds" ever.
A Caribbean clean sweep of the awards, a blunt response from a coach after a shock loss and a comeback that proved Adelaide is the real deal.
The first whistle of the 2023 Super Netball season will blast on Saturday afternoon, when interstate rivals Collingwood and the Swifts meet.
We ask if the Adelaide Thunderbirds are "a go" in 2023, take a look at the vital "gains to goals" metric and re-visit "The PG rating".
In a fresh quest to solve its identity crisis and attract fans, Super Netball’s new campaign steps into its power as a fierce, fast and feminist sport.
The days of the uniform anxiety that forced many women and girls to walk away from the sport may finally have come to an end.
The West Coast Fever began its 2023 Super Netball campaign at the weekend how it ended its 2022 season; by winning a piece of silverware.
Super Netball's pre-season tournament, the Team Girls Cup, brings together all eight teams for matches across three days.
New Adelaide Thunderbird Eleanor Cardwell is set to become one of the best shooters on the planet, according to the coach who's shaped her career.
The loss of the pregnant Diamonds star forces coach Stacey Marinkovich to pivot and reassess the whole attack end.
The Quad Series has been run and won in the same stadium set to host the World Cup, with the Australian Diamonds taking the trophy.
A dominant second half helped Australia win the Quad Series in Cape Town this morning, with a 56-49 victory over New Zealand.
Series confirmed Australia are favourites for World Cup, England are a hot mess and NZ have a diamond of their own in shooter Grace Nweke.
The Australian Diamonds sit atop the Quad Series table after a two-goal win over New Zealand in Cape Town this morning.
It was "messy" but Australia got the job done against England on the opening day of the Quad Series in Cape Town this morning.
Former Diamond Madi Browne has picked four players to watch in the series between Australia, New Zealand, England and South Africa.
The Australian men’s netball team will play in two curtain-raisers for the Australian Diamonds for the first time.
A quintet of Australian shooters find themselves under the spotlight with places in Stacey Marinkovich’s squad limited.
Successes against New Zealand and England have put Australia in a strong position ahead of next year’s tournament in Cape Town.
It's fitting that Wendy Sidebottom is the unofficial historian for Congupna Football/Netball Club given she wrote herself into the record books.
"Get around each other" is a phrase that often rings out across the blue-hued netball courts at Macorna.
As she knelt on the floor after the final whistle of the Super Netball grand final, relief seemed to wash over Jamaican superstar Jhaniele Fowler.
The league has a new broadcast partner but the stakes have never been higher for the professional game.
Stacey Marinkovich’s reinvigorated side played with a tangible sense of freedom, fluidity and fearlessness.
The international series is one of the most keenly anticipated on record from a Diamonds perspective.
Look, I'm not a wanker. Really, I'm not ... but I am 100%, hook, line and kettle bell addicted to the fitness cult that is F45.
Plans for Australia's domestic netball competition during next year's tournament raise major concerns.
Defeat to England and the way their hosts celebrated may give the Diamonds added motivation.
Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander expects the Roses to use the upcoming series to prove last year's success was no fluke.
Heading into a World Cup year Australia’s rivals can take heart from New Zealand’s recent performances.
Captain Caitlin Bassett is happy for every other team to think the Diamonds are the ones to beat at next year's World Cup.
Almost five months since England beat Australia to claim netball gold at the Commonwealth Games, the Diamonds exacted their revenge.
By design or default, Netball Australia’s decision to only offer two-year contracts is reaping benefits.
After losing the first three games of the season, many wrote off the fledging franchise. They knew it and they used it for fuel.
The Fever and Lightning’s attacking prowess grabs headlines but this championship could be won or lost elsewhere on the court.
The ‘bonus point’ system has meant the Queensland Firebirds sit atop the NSW Swifts despite winning less games.
Collingwood may have sparked a revival that should put the rest of the Super Netball competition on notice.
‘Absolutely overwhelming’ reaction to Sue Gaudion’s #wakeupnetball video, which has reached thousands of fans.
Netball's tectonic plates shifted when England stunned Australia and more change is afoot as Super Netball radically revamps scoring system
England are in the box seat to end the decades-long antipodean stranglehold on netball at the Commonwealth Games, according to one analyst.
As reigning world & Commonwealth champions, the Diamonds are already pencilled-in by many to win at the Gold Coast Games.
Netball, like other sports, must be receptive to change, to ensure it continues to thrive in an increasingly cluttered landscape.
After a 10-goal loss to New Zealand in the Quad Series last month, the Diamonds on Wednesday retained the Constellation Cup.
“So, what do you do?” is the universal icebreaker. The answer is often a lament about the tedious and not-especially fascinating daily grind.
After a shock loss to the Ferns last month, the Diamonds are in unfamiliar territory heading into the first Test of the Constellation Cup in Auckland.
They call them sliding door moments; flashes in time that shift lives. For emerging netball star Courtney Bruce the first came a decade ago.
Netball community rallies around likeable Diamonds goal keeper after announcement that she will take a break from the game.
The Sunshine Coast Lightning – with its “United Nations” of netballing talent – claimed the competition’s inaugural premiership in Brisbane.
The new competition has been a success, even if the the favourites failed to deliver and problematic scheduling and a public spat made headlines
I joined Andrew Donnison and AJ Mithen of the A Sporting Discussion podcast to discuss the first week of the Suncorp Super Netball finals series.
Goal defenders are netball's great chameleons, required to be fast-moving, canny and adaptable to change.
The new Super Netball league has kicked off. This is the guide you won't get anywhere else.
They're the self-styled anti-princesses of netball. They ones with skun knees and booming voices. The ones who hassle, hector and harangue.
They are netball's "galácticos". A band of stars, each so talented in their own right that collectively, they should be unbeatable.
Contrary to their reputation as ponytail-tossing glory-seekers, goal attacks have one of the most complex and critical assignments on the netball court.
It's netball's thankless task. A position which requires unceasing doggedness, the speed and conditioning of a sprinter, tactical nous and the disposition to allow others to take the glory when hard work translates into an intercept.
With access to more court real estate than any other player, a centre can have a huge influence on a netball game, but as Peter Parker knows, with great power, comes great responsibility.
Theirs was the Olympic story that intoxicated the nation. A young team, drawn from disparate sports, playing a new version of an old game in an electrifying way ... chasing history. It was the rise of Australia's women's rugby sevens team in Rio.
Thanks to a blistering defensive performance from 33-year-old Silver Fern Anna Harrison - who hassled, harangued and intimidated Diamonds' goaling superstar Caitlin Bassett - and a mammoth effort in defence, New Zealand beat Australia 53-51 in game two of the Constellation Cup in Launceston, to tie the series one-all.
Australian superstar Caitlin Bassett put on a shooting masterclass in Sydney this afternoon to lead her netball Diamonds to victory over the Silver Ferns in the first Test of the Constellation Cup series. Bassett knocked down 47 goals from 47 attempts in three quarters as Australia ran out 68-56 winners.
In New Zealand top netballers are household names, a situation that could be repeated in Australia if the new national league captures the public imagination
I joined Andrew Donnison and AJ Mithen of the A Sporting Discussion podcast to discuss the landmark netball pay deal.
Game on. That's the message from Australia's netball bosses, who today threw down the gauntlet to other elite female sports - or should that be, wannabe elite female sports - by announcing an unprecedented pay deal for the new national league's 80 players.
They say patience is a virtue. But fans of elite netball across Australia, including this one - so excited about the inaugural all-Australian league in 2017, featuring teams aligned to AFL and NRL clubs and to be screened in prime time on free-to-air - are all out of patience after months of uncertainty and an information vacuum.
She's torn a hamstring, shattered her wrist twice, broken her arm and generally been beaten from pillar to post in a life dedicated to taekwondo. But 67kg Carmen Marton, the daughter of Polish immigrants, this week begins her third Olympic campaign with a singular focus; gold. "Missing out in London was so tough.
"This is our last goodbye,I hate to feel the love between us die,But it's over ..." American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley certainly wasn't lamenting the end of a trans-Tasman netball competition when he penned his 1995 heartbreak standard, Last Goodbye.
While the Australian track and field team is missing its best medal chance at this Games, with hurdle superstar Sally Pearson out injured, retired sprint champion and track and field selector Melinda Gainsford-Taylor is confident others will step up.
I joined Andrew Donnison and AJ Mithen of the A Sporting Discussion podcast to chat all things netball.
It's fair to say I don't have a whole lot in common with Laura Geitz, the super-fit, world-beating 185cm netball superstar who has become one of the game's most recognisable faces ...
Netball fans opposed to radical rule changes in the new national league have good company – Australian Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander.
If Nevins' Firebirds can get over the NSW Swifts in Monday night's Australian conference final - and go all the way to claim back-to-back ANZ premierships - the 170cm 29-year-old will become the first, and only, player to win three consecutive flags.
Little sisters have a habit of making nuisances of themselves — just ask Aussie swim superstar Cate Campbell. Click headline to open PDF
Erin Delahunty & Megan Huswaite wonder aloud which of Australia’s elite female athletes would be superstars … if they played Aussie Rules.
One of Australia’s best netballers, Gabi Simpson, says changes to injury time are impacting players’ “bodies and safety” and should be reviewed
Paralympic javelin thrower Madeleine Hogan has all-but qualified for her third Paralympics, 7 months after a knee reconstruction – her second in 3 years.
The kids are all right. That’s the message from three young Victorians being raised by same-sex parents.
With hero worship of vacuous "Insta-fame" types like the Kardashian sisters reaching cultural fever pitch, the need for more worthy alternatives is clear.
Life hasn’t slowed down for world champion netballer Bianca Chatfield since retiring. Click headline to open PDF.
Australian Diamonds captain Laura Geitz says the introduction of different scoring zones - which Netball Australia has not ruled after the announcement the new national netball league - would change the "whole concept of the game." Netball Australia last week announced details of the new Australia-only league, which will be supported by a five-year free-to-air television deal on the Nine Network.
By any measure, Netball Australia's long-awaited announcement about the future of the game - which includes the end of the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship, a new all-Australian league, with new sides aligned to AFL and NRL clubs to replace it and a paid broadcast deal with Channel 9 and Telstra for primetime free-to-air coverage - is pretty spectacular.
The AFL wants to poach the best female athletes in the country for its much-hyped women’s league, but the sport with potentially the most to lose, netball, isn’t intimidated.
The Olympic buzz around Eleanor Patterson is huge, and for good reason, though this teen isn’t letting it distract her. Click headline to open PDF.
The netball world is holding its breath, wondering what the game's premier competition, the ANZ Championship, will look like in 2017.
Netball is the second most popular team sport that Aussies play. Now the game's chiefs aim to make it the topic of conversation around water coolers each Monday.
The 2016 edition of the ANZ Championship begins on Friday, with the reigning premiers, Queensland Firebirds, opening their title defence against the Mainland Tactix in Brisbane. This season the Firebirds will be the hunted, as they attempt to make history as the only side to win back-to-back trans-Tasman titles.
Ashleigh Brazill didn't set out to be a trailblazer. But as one of the only openly gay elite netballers in Australia, the self-proclaimed "scrappy kid" from the New South Wales town of Bargo who celebrated a civil union with her partner on Saturday, she is one by default.
Our end-of-year series kicks off with Daniel Rioli, Charlotte Caslick and Gabi Simpson – Australia’s brightest young talents and names to watch out for in 2016.
Our series continues with Matthew Dellavedova, Gretel Tippett and Adam Voges, three athletes for whom 2015 was richly rewarding
The poaching of a Silver Fern by an Australian franchise, the confirmation of Laura Geitz's future, the signing of a 203cm basketball international, a sister act fairytale in Melbourne, a surprise return by a former Diamond and a new coach for Adelaide - the trans-Tasman netball championships trade period didn't disappoint.
Dramatic rule changes unveiled by netball's international governing body this week shows the need for speed, in what is already one of the world's fastest sports, is seemingly insatiable.
Around 1000 angry people converged on the Victorian city of Bendigo last weekend to argue for two wildly disparate causes. This was a battle over much more than the proposed building of the town's first mosque, it was a fight going to the heart of Australia's slow-burning self-immolation over Muslim migration.
With a resounding victory over Wales effectively secured by quarter-time in the last qualifying fixture at the Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia coach Lisa Alexander was able to road test a number of positional possibilities ahead of a widely anticipated gold medal match on Sunday.
In a Netball World Cup where international rankings were reshuffled and the three most prolific goal scorers included a Malawian who plays like no one else before, a gigantic Jamaican who has honed her craft in the ANZ Championships and a 21-year-old university student from South Africa, questions about the longevity of the sport's Trans-Tasman dominance are inevitable.
New Zealand learned the hard way to never poke the Australian bear as a rampaging Diamonds team, wounded by a loss to their arch rivals earlier in the tournament, beat the Silver Ferns 58-55 in a characteristically heart-stopping Netball World Cup final in Sydney.
It's on. The Netball World Cup final fans have dreamed of since the spine-tingling double-extra time win by Australia over New Zealand in Singapore in 2011. The Trans-Tasman foes will fight for gold in Sydney on Sunday, after the Diamonds beat a determined and physical Jamaica 67-56 in front of 16,244 people.
Australia were at their ruthless best against a gallant South Africa at the Netball World Cup in Sydney, outclassing the Proteas 66-31 to secure a top-two finish in Pool F - and a place in the semi-finals.
In a thrilling match at Hisense Arena, a resolute Silver Ferns outfit, led by shooter Bailey Mes, took advantage of a depleted Diamonds defensive unit - which was missing captain Laura Geitz, who was rested, and Renae Ingles, absent because of a calf strain - and showed they'd learned from the first two tests, played in New Zealand, which Australia won.
"It's not frightening, not something to be scared of. It's part of our DNA now." Those are the words of Shepparton mayor Dennis Patterson, speaking of his town's long history of accepting and embracing refugees from war-torn nations across the globe.
He’s the “Jamie Oliver of the finance world”. A best-selling author. Primetime TV and radio star. Nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. Household name. He’s Scott Pape.
Fly-in, fly-out (FIFO); n. a generic term used to describe a variety of long-distance work practices, where workers travel by air or other mode of transport to and from worksites typically in remote areas.