IT has been a year in the making but finally, Scotland’s first-ever professional netball team will play their first competitive match. Tomorrow evening, Sirens will take to the court for their inaugural match of the 2017 Vitality Netball Superleague and Claire Nelson, the woman who has been the driving force behind the creation of this team, is unequivocal about that fact that it will be a ground-breaking moment for the sport in this country.
Nelson is the chief executive of Netball Scotland and since arriving in post in October of 2015, she has exhibited an ambition and drive to improve her sport with a vigour that cannot fail to inspire. Sirens are the culmination of twelve months of blood, sweat and tears and Nelson admits that it is a huge relief to be only one sleep away from match day because there were times when she thought that the team might never get to this point. “There were lots of times that I thought we weren’t going to make it, more times than I’d care to admit actually,” she says. “And there were lots of times that people told me that it would be easier to quit than keep going because it was so hard. We were a tiny set-up with only a percentage of the finances needed and we had to go out and try to get athletes and build a team and a brand and it was hard. But what keeps you going is when things start to fall into place.”
To say that thing have fallen into place nicely is an understatement. Sirens have been awarded the honour of opening the Superleague this year with their match against Wasps tomorrow taking place at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow in front of a remarkable crowd of 4000. In addition to the sell-out crowd, the game will be shown live on Sky Sports Mix. This platform is wholly deserved; Sirens have assembled a squad which is filled with stars; including several Scottish internationalists such as Scottish captain Claire Brownie plus Rachel Forbes and Fiona Moore-McGrath. There are world-class imports too; Sirens’ overseas players are Carla Borrego from Jamaica, a world championship bronze medallist and Ellen Halpenny, a New Zealander who won silver at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The strength of the squad gives Nelson confidence that Sirens will most certainly not merely be in the Superleague to make up the numbers and in recent months, Nelson has noticed a significant change in attitude from the other teams towards Sirens. The English contingent have gone from being somewhat dismissive about playing a Scottish team to distinctly nervous about the prospect. However, tomorrow’s opening game against Wasps will, admits Nelson, pose a significant challenge. “It’s been very sweet to see the change in attitude of the other teams- we believe that we’ve got one of the best teams in the league and everybody is nervous about playing us,” she says. “The first match against Wasps is going to be such a tough game but, of course, it would be great to get off to a winning start. Both Sirens and Wasps are capable of winning the match so I’ll be watching through my fingers but it’s going to be a world-class game of netball and that’s what everyone want to see.”
With women’s sport still garnering considerably less sponsorship money and coverage than men’s sport, Nelson is keen to see Sirens shift the statistics as drastically as possible. While she knows that changing the landscape will be a long, hard battle, she is confident that Sirens can encourage progress over the coming season. “Seeing a change happen for women’s sport is everything to me,” Nelson says. “It will be tough, though- if it was easy then everyone would be doing it and we would have complete parity already but that’s clearly not the case. But it’s in my nature to keep fighting and by the end of this season, if we’ve made some positive progress for women’s sport then everything will have been worth it.”
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