Kirrily Zimmerman is not so much the accidental or aspirational president as the transitional, here-if-you-need kind. And, this year, circumstances dictated that she was.
With reforms to the Netball Victoria constitution limiting a director’s tenure to a trio of three-year terms, the twilight of Zimmerman’s board service - which started in 2008 - will see her succeed Richelle McKenzie as president for the 12 months before she, too, stands down.
The self-described “average player, coach and umpire” - although she did represent Vic Churches at State League level, so there is a whiff of the overly-modest in the former - found her calling as an administrator, equipped with the financial and accountancy skills to make a difference from a governance standpoint.
Zimmerman also became a bench official at the elite level: officiating as a timer at the 2015 Netball World Cup in Sydney and as a scorer at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
“Netball has provided me with the most wonderful opportunities,’’ says Zimmerman, 45, referencing the big-event and professional board experiences as well as the lifelong friendships made.
“In terms of what we do, what happens on the court is the core business, but there’s all this ancillary stuff: we provide leadership, we teach people to coach and umpire, and provide employment. It’s just a fantastic sport to be involved with.’’
Zimmerman’s own participation started at Bellevue Primary School in North Balwyn - facilitated by one netball-tastic teacher, Cheryl Davenport, who ran the program.
“So that’s when I started playing, and I played and played. I played State League, but I was average. I tried coaching; it bored me to tears. I umpired because you got a discount on your subs, so I saved my parents $15.
“And then I got into administration.’’
But not in the usual way. In Year 11, Zimmerman was urged by a friend to stand for the treasurer’s role at the North Balwyn Netball Club because it would look good on her CV, and eventually help her get a job.
It didn’t. But she would soon assume the same role when helping to found the Boroondara Netball Association in 1996. “And I’ve been the treasurer of that. Forever.’’
In 2008, a friend (not the same one - former director Wendy Frost), suggested Zimmerman stand for election because Netball Victoria needed an accountant on its board. “And here we are.’’ Still.
As for the presidency, being elected at a Zoom board meeting last Monday was far less a calling than a timing matter for someone who admits that the top job "was never my path".
It was what Zimmerman describes as a generally inexperienced board in terms of years served, combined with a COVID-disrupted 2020 involving Zoom meetings but little else, that convinced her that some fellow directors needed an extra 12 months "to get up to speed before they could stand for president’’.
Now. The priorities.
“It seems like we need to make sure our grass roots have all recovered from COVID and are getting members and supporting Netball Victoria - and we need to support them back,'' says Zimmerman.
"We’re finding at Boroondara that umpires are in short supply; a lot of people have dropped off; so we need to get everyone back engaged in netball, because our grass roots members are very, very important.''
Umpires, particularly. “In our area, it seems that the players are all ready and raring to go, but it’s the umpires who have gone ‘well, we don’t really like this job any more, and we’ve had 12 months off and we won’t do it’. So you’ve missed 12 months of training the next lot.
“And that’s going to be the same with players and with the elite who have just missed 12 months. The other thing we’ve got to do is we’ve got to be engaged and we’ve got to support Netball Australia’s State of the Game review.’’
That includes governance and cultural matters, while other key issues Zimmerman identifies range from dwindling media coverage to banging-on-the-government’s door regarding facilities, the benefits and limitations of ‘’volunteerism’’, and the need to fend off other sports to ensure netball remains the No.1 sport for women and girls.
Zimmerman laughs that her view has been informed by every angle and perspective except a slightly wistful one: “I’m not an elite player. I would have loved to have been a Vixen.’’
Sharelle McMahon was a favourite. Of course she was. “Probably now it’s just the whole (Vixens) team and the whole experience.’’
Her own has been memorable, for someone who declares netball is in her veins.
In 12 months, when her finite term as president and 14 years as a board member ends, Zimmerman hopes her contribution will feature positively in the asset column of the balance sheet she knows so well.
“Professionally I’m a boring accountant, and we’re currently in a strong financial position,'' she says, with typical self-deprecation.
"I would like to think that at the end of my tenure I would have had something to do with that, being chair of the Finance Audit Risk Committee. The fact that we survived COVID, and we came out the other end - strongly, as a successful business, we didn't have to borrow any money, and we survived - is a big thing for me.
“I feel like anecdotally we’re probably one of the strongest associations in Australia given what everyone else just went through with COVID and their financial situation. I don’t feel like we were there; we weren’t at the brink.’’
So what will come next, after so many years, for someone pragmatic to the end?
“I think I’ll just go back to Boroondara and cook the sausages on the barbecue.’’
- written by LInda Pearce
