CDNA Spring 2022 Update

Hello everyone,

Happy Holidays! Hope you’re all relaxing, enjoying the time off and keeping warm!
This is a very important update for everyone, so please sit down with a cup of coffee and have a thorough read of everything……..

SPRING FIXTURES

The Spring fixtures have now been put online for you all. (https://cdna.net.au/domestic-fixtures/) Have a look through, let your teams know where they are and when they’re playing and remember that there will be a Grading period of 3 weeks.

OPEN UNIFORM

After some discussion, the CDNA Committee have made a decision about the uniform allowances for the Open section only. This section ONLY will now be allowed to wear tracksuit pants (without adornments or pockets), leggings or bike shorts as part of their uniform on game day, either underneath their existing club dress / shorts or on their own. These bottoms must be either black or the same colour as their club uniform, not brightly coloured or patterned. And, importantly, all open players must still wear a proper club top / dress to play. Even fill-ins may not play in plain black or plain coloured tops unless an exemption has been granted. Please ensure your open players are aware of these specifications.

SPRING TIMINGS

We will be changing all of our games back to 9-minute quarters moving forward. This will not affect the game times but will mean there is less time in between matches for umpires and others. We excitingly have 19 more teams than we had in Autumn, so we can’t wait to see them all out on court!

SPRING PLAYER REGISTRATIONS

Please ensure all of your players have registered correctly directly to your club. There is a large handful of people who have incorrectly registered directly to the Association…… Please make sure all of your team lists are completed by late next week in order for them to be ready to play and appear on the scoresheets.

For those independent teams, please make sure your players have all registered using their own special link that I sent you, in order for me to be able to create your team list behind the scenes as well.

SCORESHEETS

Remember those miniscule scoresheets we had to use last season? Well, World Sport Action (Netball Connect) have listened to the overwhelming feedback and have come up with a new one for us to use this season! I have attached a copy of it, along with instructions on how to fill it out the required way.

How to Fill in a Scoresheet - Spring 2022

LIVE SCORING

As you may know, the new Netball Connect platform allows matches to have “live scoring” in place of scoresheets, a process where assigned scorers use their phones to allocate team members and input the scores for the game. It has been decided that we will be trialling this live scoring on a small scale during Spring, having a small handful of teams accessing it, whilst still having paper scoresheets for them just in case. We will look at how it all goes when discussing next year. We would love to have some volunteers come forward who may be interested in doing this for Spring – we’re looking for around 10 teams from a variety of clubs to work with. I will walk everyone through everything in advance and will also be there on the first Saturday of competition, along with a Netball Victoria representative as well to help! Please let me know if you have a team interested, thank you.

TRAINING COURT ALLOCATIONS

I have attached the most up to date Training Court Allocation roster for you all. Please have a look and make sure all of your teams are aware of their correct times. If you no longer need your courts, please do let me know so I can adjust it and make sure we’re not being charged for court lighting if it’s not necessary. This document is also available on our website too - https://cdna.net.au/training-court-allocation/

BEHAVIOUR

In our Autumn season, we received a high amount of reports of poor behaviour from players, coaches and spectators. We know that everyone is very excited to finally be back out on court again and wanting to win games – that’s completely normal – what isn’t normal or acceptable is making umpires, opposition players or anyone else feel uncomfortable, aggrieved, distressed or even victimised. We as an Association will not tolerate unacceptable behaviour and nor should you as governing clubs either. It’s everyone’s responsibility to build and maintain the strong and inclusive culture we love to have. We are all out there for the same common goal – to have our community playing netball.

I have attached our Codes of Behaviour if they are needed again when sending a reminder to everyone about what your and our expectations are for the coming season. We thank you for your help with this. 

CDNA Player Codes of Behaviour
CDNA Team Official Codes of Behaviour
CDNA Parent Spectator Codes of Behaviour

CHILD SAFETY

On the 1^st July, the new Victorian Child Safe Standards came into effect, replacing the previous ones adopted in 2016. The changes have been made to make our standards even stronger in the quest to protect children and young people from harm and abuse. These are a set of mandatory requirements and all organisations (ie clubs) need to comply with them.

CDNA have worked through the Standards and are adopting the recommendations and necessary guidelines, including an Acknowledgement of Country every round, a designated section on our website with resources (which I am just finalising now), auditing of staff WWCC’s, amongst other things.

Some of you may have attended some webinars run by VicSport or Netball Victoria but here is a quick explanatory video for you and I have also attached a document from Netball Victoria outlining steps and resources for everyone.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MgU2JzCEg&t=64s

Please ensure you’re across all of this important legislation and documentation and implement everything that is needed at your club level.

11/U REPRESENTATIVE FUTURE GEN PROGRAM OPPORTUNITY

This year our Rep Program has been running an 11/U “Future Gen” program for players who didn’t quite make the Rep teams but were identified as having some potential to harness and hone in on in preparation for next year’s trials. We currently have 10 extra spots available for the program for the rest of the year and are opening it up to the clubs to put forward any players in that age group they think may be ready to step up just that little extra bit with their skills and game knowledge.

Training is on Monday afternoons at our courts from 4:30pm-6pm except during school holidays. They don’t play weekly games anywhere external or tournaments, they are purely just a training team with experienced coaches looking after them every week.

The cost is $150 for the Program and that includes a training top.

Spots will be allocated on a first come, first served basis and we cannot offer any more than 10 spaces maximum. Please contact secretary@stanthonysnetball.org.au to propose a player for this programme.

UNIVERSITY STUDY PARTICIPANTS SOUGHT

Our very own Umpire Coordinator, Lucy Barker, in her other life, is studying her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Sociology. She is looking for participants to help her in one of her studies…

Dear club delegates, 

I hope you are well. 

I am currently recruiting participants for a study about the experiences of mothers in balancing their work and domestic duties with their volunteer role/roles in grassroots netball. This study will form the basis for my honours thesis in Sociology.  

If you or your club know of any volunteers who may be interested in participating, I would be very grateful if you could pass this email on. Potential participants may then indicate their interest by emailing me at libarker@deakin.edu.au to receive further information in the form of a plain language statement and a consent form to participate.  

Please note that as with all research, you are not obligated to participate and may withdraw your consent to participate at any time without penalty. This study has received Deakin University ethics approval (reference number: HAE-22-025). My supervisor is Associate Professor Kim Toffoletti, her contact details are kim.toffoletti@deakin.edu.au or 03 9244 3986. 

Thank you for your time.  

Kind regards,  

Lucy Barker

 As always, if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to be in touch. Thank you all for your time and help as we move into Spring. We look forward to seeing you all and to having our courts abuzz again with whistles and cheers!