Through a lifetime in netball, two moments in the past two years have stood out as an irresistible source of pride and joy for long-serving Netball Victoria board member and outgoing president Richelle McKenzie.
For McKenzie, who, over almost five decades, has been an elite player, a local then state coach and educator, Melbourne Phoenix manager from 1999-2003, plus NV director since 2008 and president since 2017, the first was at Waverley Netball Centre on a dark night in a distant carpark in 2019.
As she walked towards the stadium for a meeting, girls and women, players and parents, were flooding out. “A round of games had just finished, and they were bubbly, they were excited, they were all chatting as they were going to their cars,’’ she recalls.
“I was just walking through them and listening and it was a really proud moment thinking ‘this is why we do what we do’. It was just that moment in time.’’
The second was in February, as the sport reopened from its COVID-19 shutdown. McKenzie was on a shopping errand near her home, not far from the Knox Regional Netball Centre, when she was briefly perplexed by the presence of so many cars.
“Then all of a sudden it dawned on me: ‘netball’s back’,’’ she says with a laugh. “I was so overwhelmed and excited to be sitting in a traffic jam because netball’s back, and I’m looking at all the cars, parents with little girls in the back, going to or from their games.
“I was even trying to get to the centre just to go to the office and say ‘well done on the hard work to get it back’, but I couldn’t get through the traffic to get there!’’
Such stories help to illustrate the community-first approach of McKenzie, who has never sought power or glory, but considers it an honour to have had a seat - including the big chair - at the board table, and has never forgotten where netball’s strengths lie.
“Probably what I’m proudest of is the culture in Victoria - not that I have set it,’’ she says. “We have wonderful netball people in Victoria, so to be able to maintain the culture of the board and the culture of the organisation and the sport across Victoria, that probably sounds easy, but it does take a little bit of work sometimes to remind everybody what we’re here for.
"If we didn’t have the association leagues and our netball community, we wouldn’t have Netball Victoria.’’
So how to define the culture?
“It’s embracing of everybody. It’s respectful. Recognising and appreciating everyone’s contribution, because it’s predominantly volunteers. The culture is about all working together for the betterment of netball in Victoria, and everybody embraces that. There’s very few people in it for their own benefit.
"It’s community sport, but then we have our top end with our Vixens, our showcase, which is fabulous, and we also have wonderful athletes and people in the Vixens team; good role models, who set high standards, and it’s been that way with many of the teams that I’ve been involved with over the years.
“There’s high expectation. You’re representing Victoria, and everyone’s prepared to work together for the betterment of the sport. You can’t have success if you’ve got too many prima donnas, and we haven’t got them! People who aren’t there for the right reasons don’t last.’’
McKenzie has been a true stayer, in the best sense, and she jokes that, having recently celebrated her 40th wedding anniversary with husband John, netball has been one constant throughout.
After first being elected in 2008, she will step down as a board member at the AGM on April 28th, the constitution having been changed to limit directors to a maximum of three elected three-year terms.
“That epitomises Richelle’s selflessness,’’ says Netball Victoria CEO Rosie King. “I’m sure she would have loved to have continued on in some way, shape or form, but also recognises for good governance that that was the right thing to do.
“Richelle has committed a whole lifetime to netball. She is one of the stalwarts of netball, and she’s really grown from her grassroots participation to be a first class director.
“She has an incredibly high work ethic and in the complex environment that we talk about in netball from grassroots to elite, from amateur to professional, to broadcast deals to governance matters and sponsorships and everything in between, it is a very very complex organisation and industry... and Richelle has certainly flourished in the role of president.
“I often say that she’s our 'fearless leader', and in the context of the 'Play Fearless" campaign she’s very compassionate, very caring but also extremely determined and a bit of a dog with a bone when it comes to important issues.
"She has a quiet determination and a diligence that has really helped us form the basis of an organisation that has all the right structures in place and is now very much ready to take a giant leap forward.’’
As for specific achievements, McKenzie nominates overcoming resistance to facilitate the growth in boys’ participation at junior level and flourishing men’s competitions. Social issues are now more prominent, too, including transgender policies. Week one of her presidency coincided with the same-sex marriage debate to which NV was asked to contribute.
Indeed, the fact netball has a far bigger voice now, through the respect earned as a major player far beyond its own close-knit community, is the most significant change in McKenzie’s time. More recent, but also positive, has been more regular collaboration between the member states/territories and Netball Australia.
For someone whose message has always been that those running the game should remember they are merely custodians, with a debt of gratitude to those who have gone before and a responsibility to those who follow, McKenzie praises the management of the coronavirus pandemic, financially and otherwise, by both the board and the staff.
“It’s exciting times for netball,’’ she says. “We have development coming through from coaches, umpires and players, we’re about to move into our home of netball, the State Netball Hockey Centre, which has been a community effort, because it was community that helped us get the money for that.''
On a personal note, McKenzie will step back and take a breath for now, after playing by the rules that determined her time at the top was up. Coaching remains her great passion, though, and she intends to remain a regular at Vixens’ games.
“My life evolves. I’m happy to see what comes along,’’ she says. “You can’t be passionate and then just walk away and forget about it. Having been involved for so long now, I couldn’t walk away.’’
Written by Linda Pearce
