Netball PNG complete strategic planning and high-performance workshop with Australian Government support

Twenty participants, representing a diverse range of perspectives from Papua New Guinea’s netball community, recently gathered for an intensive two-day workshop in Port Moresby.

The workshop, which was run in collaboration with Netball Australia and supported by the Australian Government through PacificAus Sports, focused on finalizing Netball PNG’s Strategic Plan for 2026-2029, and also helped to refine the organization’s High-Performance program.

President of Netball PNG, Ms Ulato Avei, said this workshop was an important milestone in affirming Netball PNG’s strategic direction.

“We achieved our objective in terms of finalizing the Strategic Plan and the High-Performance Plan. Now we can focus on ensuring these are delivered and executed accordingly,” Ms Avei said.

Netball Australia’s Head of Market Development, Ms Sallee Caldwell, reflected on the progress made over the two days.

“Netball PNG has shown that its netball community is leading the way in having a clear vision for the growth of netball across Papua New Guinea. This includes a strong commitment to high-performance pathways and athlete development,” she said.

Supporting Netball PNG throughout the high-performance planning was one of Australia’s most accomplished netball players and coaches, Ms Simone McKinnis. Former Australian Diamond and head coach of the Melbourne Vixens, Ms. McKinnis has also worked with the Australian 21U Squad, Netball in Singapore, as well as Netball Tanzania in her coaching career.

Ms. McKinnis highlighted the positive collaboration that took place during the workshop: "I’ve loved working with Netball PNG. We had a great group in terms of the knowledge and experience present in the room. People who wanted to be proactive and were passionate about growing the sport. It gave me energy to see their drive and will for things to grow and strengthen."

While in Papua New Guinea, McKinnis also conducted an Intensive Training Session with the PNG Pepes and head coach Lua Rikis. Ms. Rikis echoed Ms. McKinnis’ positive feedback on the training session.

“I spoke with Simone beforehand about what I wanted the session to focus on. Because we have different levels of netballers currently in training, I felt it was important that we had something relevant for each of those athletes at different levels. With Simone’s experience, the intensity of the session was what we wanted, and the outcome was good,” she said.