Written by: Amelia Barnes
Brodie Roberts has been selected to represent Australia’s 2022 Men’s National netball team for the fifth year running. He will be joined by three other Victorian players (and two training partners) showcasing the amount of depth the state has.
Roberts has been playing netball since he was seven. The goal attack tried “just about every sport growing up” — and even competed in sailing at a national level — but netball was always his favourite.
With no local boy’s netball team for him to play in beyond Under 11s, Roberts was encouraged to take up umpiring instead.
Four of the 17 umpires in the 2022 Suncorp Super Netball Umpire Squad are male, in addition to four of the seven umpires in the Netball Australia Umpire Talent Pool.
“I think it just shows that they love to contribute to the sport in whatever way they can,” Roberts said. “Lots of the elite male umpires I know have retired from their playing careers, but clearly don’t want to retire from netball.”
Fortunately for the future of Victoria and Australian men’s netball, Roberts’ hiatus from playing netball was short lived. He soon learned of a competition at Melbourne East Netball Association that allowed boys his age to play, where he was alerted to the existence of the Victorian 17 & Under Boys state team.
“I was only 12, however, my mum and I decided we would go along to trials as it was just another opportunity for me to play some netball,” Roberts said. “It was definitely intimidating trialling against boys four to five years older than me, but I loved the challenge of shooting against them. To my mum’s and my surprise, I was picked in the team that year.”
Roberts’ mum called to double check a mistake hadn’t been made, but coach Geoff Taylor was certain. “I will always be grateful to Geoff Taylor for seeing my potential and picking me so young as it allowed me to develop in an all-men's elite training environment that I couldn't get anywhere else.”
Roberts played in the Victorian 17 & Under Boys team from 2009 to 2013 (including as captain from 2011) and was selected in the Australian team from 2011 to 2013.
His school, Williamstown High, also had a netball program headed up by Marg Lind (former Melbourne Kestrels head coach) that allowed Roberts to train with the women’s City West Falcons Victorian Netball League (VNL) club.
Roberts continued progressing through the pathway, making Victoria’s 23 & Under Men’s team in 2014 (where he again made the Australian squad), then the Victoria’s Open Men’s team in 2015.
“This was always my dream to play on this team; I had idolised them since I saw my first Open Men's match at Nationals when I made the Under 17s. I am so grateful to have played alongside some iconic men's players like Daniel Cooke, Will Jamison, and Andrew Simons, as well as being coached by Christina Puopolo,” said Roberts. “They merged the women's and men's playing styles and completely set the standard for men's netball in Australia.”
Roberts reached the pinnacle of men’s netball in Australia — the National Open Men’s team — in 2018. He’s been reselected every year since, including in the recently announced 2022 squad despite currently undergoing injury rehabilitation for a torn calf.
Roberts' injury was acquired at the Australian Men's & Mixed Netball Association (AMMNA) National Championships in April following two years of cancelled events due to COVID-19.
“It definitely felt a bit strange at the start of the tournament after being out of the game for so long and then all of a sudden we have to play 11 matches in a week,” he said. “Nationals is definitely a marathon, not a sprint.”
After recovering from a separate injury just weeks prior, Roberts unfortunately suffered a torn calf in Round 7, which sidelined him for the remainder of the tournament.
Regardless of the end result that saw NSW defeat Victoria in the grand final 67-41, Roberts was pleased with his team and personal performance as vice-captain throughout the week.
“We started the tournament winning our first six matches in a row, which I'm extremely proud of. We hadn’t been able to achieve results like this since we last won back in 2016,” he said.
“Our team put a lot of effort throughout COVID into creating new values that we all believed in — a lot of this coming from our amazing assistant coach Shannon Bessell — and I think everything we put into place is ultimately what got us the results we have been searching for all these years.”
Roberts is currently undergoing injury rehabilitation ahead of his Australian playing commitments later in the year. The squad is completing daily training remotely to prepare their toughest competitor, New Zealand.
“It’s a similar rivalry to the women where it is a clash of styles that makes for great netball,” said Roberts. “Our national sides have also played Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Cook Islands, and South Africa in previous years, and we know the national sides in Jamaica and England are getting better and better.”
Outside of playing for Australia and Victoria, Roberts plays in the Men's Premier division of MLeague (Victoria's premier men's and mixed netball competition) for Sirens Netball, and is an umpire for the VNL (Victoria's premier women’s netball competition).
Roberts has been umpiring at the VNL level since 2013; has been an A Badge umpire since 2015; and has previously worked as an umpire development coordinator for Netball Victoria.
To say Roberts has made an impact on Victorian netball both as a player and an umpire would be an understatement. As an umpire he’s helped raised the standard of the VNL, and as a player he’s taken the men’s game to new heights.
In the next 10 years, Roberts believes a Suncorp Super Netball and Netball World Cup style men’s competition is possible and hopes more opportunities for boys at the grassroots level become available.
Recent changes to progress the men’s game have included Fox Sports media coverage following the AMMNA National Championships, and Netball Australia campaigning for the sport’s inclusion (including a men’s team) in the 2023 Olympics in Brisbane.
“I believe that if the publicity and infrastructure are there, the hype of the game will grow rapidly, and crowds will be captivated. This will also show young boys that an elite pathway exists and gives them something to strive toward,” Roberts said.
Boys and men interested in joining Roberts’ pursuit to elevate the men's game can contact Victorian Men’s and Mixed Netball Association (VMMNA) to assist with navigating the pathway. “I encourage any young boy to disregard the stigma that netball is for girls and get amongst it as early as you can,” said Roberts.
“If you’re coming to the sport as an adult, why not get a group of friends together and play some social mixed as a starting point to learn the game. Who knows; you might love it and then want to come and trial for a state team or join a men's team at MLeague.”
Roberts will join fellow Victorians Tim Malmo, Alastair Punshon, and Riley Richardson and training partners Cameron Allum and Jake Hederics on tour with the Australian Open Men's team on tour later in the year. He is also looking to secure Victoria’s first premiership since 2016 at next year’s AMMNA National Championships.
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