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Jacob McIntyre was often dragged out of bed on cold winter mornings to watch his sisters play netball as a child.
McIntyre, now 29, never imagined he would captain his own mixed netball team of five men and six women.
Jacob McIntyre (holding phone) is one of the thousands of men taking up netball, fuelling the sport’s growing popularity.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
“I love the social aspect, and that’s one of the main reasons I’ve stuck around. It’s also a great workout,” he said.
McIntyre is not alone. Data from the Australian Sports Commission’s latest sports survey shows an estimated 115,400 men played netball in 2022 – up from 64,300 in 2020.
Women and girls still make up the vast majority of more than 1 million netballers, which has overtaken Aussie rules (924,400) to be the third-highest team participation sport in Australia after soccer (1.7 million) and basketball (1.1 million).
But men such as McIntyre are shaking off the gender stereotypes attached to the sport. “If anything, I am not very sporty, so I think people are more just surprised that I play anything at all.”
McIntyre plays in games organised by Urban Rec, which has 2771 netball players – 40 per cent of whom are men.
The number of teams playing in mixed netball competitions organised by Melbourne Social Netball has increased from 27 in 2020 to 111 this year.
MSN co-owner Tina Blythman said she expected numbers to increase “as it is an easy way to be social and active all year round”.
“We have a lot of work teams, and we find it common for a female player to bring along a male identifying partner, friend, brother etc,” she said. “We are bringing our first all-male identifying social comp this August.”
Wing defence Ciaran Rayment tries to intercept a pass at Flagstaff Gardens.Credit: Eddie Jim
More men are also playing netball for corporate social teams in lunch-hour competitions across Sydney.
Lunchtime Legends operator Matt Johnson said there were also more men organising and captaining netball teams.
“It seems to be very popular among lawyers, then it’s probably accounting firms,” he said.
Netball NSW general manager of communities Trish Crews said there had been a significant rise in men playing the sport last year after a push to expand participation.
“A lot of our associations run spring competitions at night, and we’ve doubled the participation of men in those comps – both in mixed and men’s teams,” she said.
Crews said the visibility of men’s netball at higher levels of the game – the men’s national team played in televised opener games for the women’s Australia-New Zealand series in October 2022 – helped attract more boys and young men to the sport.
The Netball NSW Schools Cup now caters to boys’ teams right up to its top level of competition, a tier of the game previously reserved for girls.
There are about 360 boys’ teams playing in the competition this year, and Crews said local associations were offering more opportunities than ever for boys to play in Saturday comps.
But for adults playing at a social level, Crews said the popularity of mixed teams was key.
“Netball has always been a sport that girls have loved, that brings them together and empowers women and girls,” she said. “Now they’re bringing their dads, boyfriends and husbands along too.”
More than 40 teams competed in Victoria’s MLeague men’s and mixed netball competition during the 2022-23 season, including men’s, mixed and junior (14/Under and 17/Under) competitions.
Victoria also reigns supreme in men’s and mixed netball, winning four of the six divisions at the 2023 Australian Men’s and Mixed Netball Association National Championships.
While netball may traditionally have been viewed as a sport for women, “more men and boys are participating in our game, and we’re working to ensure this trend continues”, a Netball Victoria spokeswoman said.
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