Diamonds star and Australian Netball Players’ Association president Jo Weston has broken down in tears while explaining the toll on the Super Netball players in their pay dispute with Netball Australia.
In a press conference on Thursday, Weston began to cry when asked about being threatened with legal action before Super Netball stars collectively boycotted the Netball Australia Awards on Saturday night.
“The letter that came through just before the awards, it is hard to talk about what it means,” Weston told media.
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“The Netball Australia awards are one of my favourite events. I’m getting emotional about it.
“It’s been really hard. All of us just want to be able to move forward with what we think is fair and reasonable for our playing group. We want to feel like we’re valued. We want to feel like we’re respected and listened to.”
Negotiations for a new collective player agreement have repeatedly broken down over the type of share model that the sport would enter into in partnership with the players
However, Weston is hopeful of a resolution when the players’ association meet with Netball Australia on Friday.
“Hopefully tomorrow when we’re in the room we’ll be able to get something done for our players,” she said.
On Wednesday, the players association refused a holdover deal from Netball Australia which included an immediate 11 per cent pay rise and back pay from when the previous CPA expired on September 30.
In the statement, Netball Australia chief executive Kelly Ryan said the body had “listened to the players and their need for financial certainty right now”.
“This offer we have put forward would allow them to be paid immediately, while we continue negotiations with ANPA on building a financial model for the league,” she said on Wednesday.
“We hope this will provide all parties the certainty and stability they seek.”
While this latest offer would have seen the players paid straight away, it would have tabled the hybrid revenue share and profit share model component of the CPA which the players have repeatedly asked for.
ANPA chief executive Kathryn Harby-Williams reiterated the stress felt by the players who have gone nine weeks without being paid.
“We are desperate to get a deal done for these players because that’s the emotional toll that you are seeing right there,” she said, pointing to a distressed Weston.
“I speak to players and have had for the past nine weeks, and I have had players sobbing. I have had them weeping. Players have slept in their cars, players have had to move out of their homes and move across the country back to families.”
Harby-Williams was disappointed with the governing body’s tactics, claiming the ANPA had earlier proposed an interim deal that would have allowed players to continue earning a wage.
“Netball Australia has said they are listening to the players and that they need to be paid and that they are struggling being unemployed. We don’t want words we want action and that could have been done nine weeks ago,” she said.
“We put a proposition on the table saying to Netball Australia, ‘Lock in player payments until the end of January which will enable us enough time to do a deal’ and that was rejected.
“So, for it to be put on the table now is confusing because it was a part deal.
“I thought a page was missing because there was no reference to revenue share or the commercial arrangement [of the CPA].
“I was just a publicity stunt as far as we’re concerned.”
Harby-Williams was confident of coming to a compromise on Friday.
“We’re going in there with an intent to do a deal,” she said.
“We think the deal we have put on the table is extremely favourable. It’s not a pure revenue-share model because we are desperate to get a deal done.
“It’s a very fair and reasonable deal — we have paired it back from a percentage of licensing, merchandise, events, ticketing, whatever, to simply a small share of above forecast sponsorship revenue.”
The ANPA is advocating for a hybrid revenue share and profit share model where the players receive 20-25 per cent of the income generated by sponsorship before expenses are deducted to determine profit.
“We simply cannot understand why it has not been accepted and why it wasn’t accepted a long time ago,” Harby-Williams said.