By Goya Dmytryshchak
A 13-year-old Altona boy is fighting to be able to play netball for one more year with the girls he has been competing with since age eight.
Brodie McCleish, had played centre, wing attack and goal attack as the only boy on his netball team.
He has just been accepted to play in the Victorian squad in the men’s 17 and under reserves.
His mother, Renee, said there was a one-year gap before Brodie could play again with the Altona Netball Association at his local Altona Sports Centre.
“At Altona, he’s not even allowed to play in the mixed team in the adult competition until he’s 14.
“They’ve brought it down to 14 but my issue is, there’s still a 12-month gap.”
She said if the association re-labelled the competition mixed or open, Brodie or any other boy would be able to play netball.
“Now that he’s made the state side, he has to play netball somewhere so ideally we’d like him to play with the people that he’s played with since he was under 9s,” Ms McCleish said.
“Altona haven’t evolved whereas some of the other associations over the other side of town have evolved.”
Brodie’s father, Guy, said he experienced discrimination when he played netball 20 years ago and nothing had changed.
“They call it a mixed competition but males are allowed to play up ‘til they’re 13,” he said.
“Once they hit 13, they believe the boys start to grow into teenagers and they think it’s not fair for boys to play against girls.
“The hardest part for Brodie now is that he’s got nowhere to play in his region.”
Brodie has been invited to play in the Junior Men’s League (M League), which is in Donvale in Melbourne’s outer-east.
Netball Victoria said it couldn’t comment on specific cases. Netball Victoria’s Promoting Male Participation in Netball Policy states that males from age 13 are not permitted to participate in female competitions.
“To provide opportunities for participation, males should be supported and encouraged to play mixed and where possible, male single gender competition,” the policy states.
The Altona Netball Association’s Diana Porter, speaking on behalf of the committee, said one more mixed team was needed for competition in the 15 and under.
“The 15 and under is where he [Brodie] would go to now,” she said.
“We have been able to get three teams in from the clubs but we need four to run a competition.”
