Lindy Murphy has long been involved with netball, taking up various roles at Netball Victoria, Netball Australia, and World Netball (previously International Netball Federation) over the past 30 years.
She’s been involved with Suncorp Super Netball, the Commonwealth Games, and the Netball World Cup, but Murphy's contribution to grassroots netball and advancing the game on a community level has been equally significant.
Since 2013, Murphy has been the president of Melbourne University Lightning netball club, working to establish and deliver strong inclusiveness objectives.
Creating a safe place for LGBT+ identifying people to participate in netball has been a priority of the club, leading to the establishment of the first Pride Round game in the Victorian Netball League (VNL) in 2016.
Designed to raise awareness of the LGBT+ community’s valuable role in netball, players in this inaugural Pride game wore rainbow bibs, supporters were encouraged to dress colourfully, and hair ribbons were offered to the opposition team and game officials to join in the celebration.
The response to the game was resoundingly positive, with all players and supporters proudly participating in the event. “Everyone embraced it. We’ve never had a single person object to what we were doing, or object to wearing the Pride colours or bibs,” Murphy said.
What started as a one-club initiative eventually became a league-wide event, with Netball Victoria agreeing to a full VNL Pride Round in 2020 involving every team and supported by RACV.
This first VNL Pride Round was officially held in 2021, with players sporting Netball Victoria-supplied bibs in Pride and transgender flag colours. The Lightning teams in the Championship, Division 1 and 19/U grades also wore specially designed Pride Round dresses, funded by Bendigo Bank.
“There was a wonderful, positive, energised vibe within the venue,” says Murphy of the 2021 VNL Pride Round. “It’s really been embraced and welcomed with a lot of enthusiasm and energy.”
Murphy's commitment to Melbourne University Lightning and expanding Pride Round over the past two years is to be applauded, particularly after forgoing payment in 2020 due to the pandemic. She says her continued commitment as Melbourne University Lightning’s president to supporting netballers from all walks of life is an “absolute no brainer.”
“There’s many groups out there who are not included, or that find it very difficult to become part of our sport. It’s really important that we embrace these communities, and work to make sure we’re creating a really inclusive club environment where everyone is welcome regardless of their socioeconomic circumstances, culture, heritage, or sexuality.”
Pride Round will expand in 2022 to also include Melbourne’s University’s social netball teams playing at Parkville. Additional 2022 initiatives of the club will be conducting regular educational sessions with members to ensure appropriate language-use around gender; providing adequate player facilities; and collaborating with an Indigenous artist to design a new dress.
“We’re going to wear our clash dress whenever we play a team in similar colours and throughout NAIDOC Week, so we can create awareness of the importance of the Indigenous community and the contribution they make to sport,” Murphy said.
On a wider scale, Murphy would love to see an official Pride Round introduced in the Suncorp Super Netball, and more inclusive measures such as gender-neutral uniforms being implemented by leagues nationally.
“It’s not difficult to deliver a Pride event; what is more difficult is to make sure we have adequate inclusion policies, procedures, and an education framework in place that works to ensure inclusiveness all year round, not just through one week of netball,” she said.
“As a sport, we are perfectly placed to give young people struggling with their own sexuality the confidence and reassurance they need to be themselves in a safe and accepting environment.”
On being named Netball Victoria’s Inclusive Netball Community of the Year, Murphy said the award is a wonderful acknowledgement of the club’s work in collaboration with the University of Melbourne.
“We are doing the right thing in encouraging, promoting, and celebrating the LGBT+ community to belong and participate in sport – it’s their human right to be part of our sport. I think it sends a great message to all of our players, coaches, and families that collectively we can bring about change, and we need to keep doing it.”
