NSW Premier Chris Minns also said his government would commission a mural to be installed at the front of Stadium Australia, to celebrate the Matildas’ achievements.
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Are there any other sports statues or murals around the stadium?
I think it will look pretty cool with this football mural and the Olympic cauldron across the road.
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and by funding NRLW and AFLW 
How would you feel if you were at Netball Australia? They’ve won their world cup and got minimal coverage for their efforts. While its great to recognise the efforts of the Matildas (especially given they’ve achieved something that will potentially never be matched by the men’s side) - it’s critical that we support all womens sports - not just the ones that are in the zeitgeist.
There are some key reasons why the NRL and AFL are so successful in getting funding and FA get very little and some of it isn’t complicated either, if this is something Football wants to change, it behooves FA/APL to look closely at why that’s the case and follow their lead. Making stupid calls for the Government to underwrite the ALW is going to get you zero dollars.
I can tell you now from experience, getting some of this funding isn’t that difficult, especially when the sports administration is willing to publically support the cause (and even better when they chip in). Letters of support from the codes go a hell of a long way to showing need - both the NRL and AFL (even at regional levels) are more than happy to support projects that their clubs say there is a need for, it was like extracting blood from a stone to get them from Football thanks to their bloated governance and they’re missing out.
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Bogut and Kyrgios giving their 2 cents on the Matildas and statue announcement by Qld Premier…
https://twitter.com/NickKyrgios/status/1693528766801449060?s=19
I think most would probably recognise that similar to Australia winning things like the Rugby League World Cup, performance at Netball is kinda expected.
It didn’t help that you needed Foxtel to follow most of the tournament and it was buried under a whole bunch of other major sporting events. The only way I knew the tournament was on were some horror stories about people trying to attend it having ticketing issues.
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Unfortunately people didn’t even know it was on due to the rights deal. Netball is going well in terms of crowds at the game but the coverage is appalling as no one knows where it is given their tie up with fox. Niche sports like netball needs free to air to be able to be known.
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And that netball doesn’t have the global profile or $$$$ attached to it that football / soccer does.
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Don’t listen to that wacko Bogut. Hope he shuts up for good soon. Just because he was a failure and hates women’s sport doesn’t mean he needs to express these opinions.
But at the same time need the money no one else can offer.
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It’s a double edged sword. Niche sports like Motorsport, rugby and soccer and now netball have been destroy by fox.
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Are they really ‘niche’ though, at least wholly?
V8s used to be (and still is at times) one of our major sports, same with but to a lessse extent Rugby Union and World Cups (as just seen) rate their socks off. Netball IIRC seemed to do well or at least had popularity with good crowds and TV exposure when on Ten from I’m going to say about 2008 helped by ONE HD era, lead by Liz Ellis and the bizarre decision but turned out okay with their AFL expert Luke Darcy (eclipsed by him co-hosting Tokyo Olympics with Johanna Griggs!) co-calling and Kelli Underwood.
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Netball was and is in financial ruin - they needed the money they couldn’t get from an FTA partner. This has been well documented. It’s all very well claiming ‘exposure’ but that doesn’t pay the bills.
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Pass.
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Those two really are Australian sport’s answer to the question no one asked.
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The Moore Park Precinct in Sydney (outside the SCG and Allianz Stadium) have quite a few statues there, for various athletes. These athletes ranging from from Soccer, NRL, AFL, Rugby Union, and Cricket, to track athlete (Betty Cuthbert and Marlene Mathews).
At Stadium Australia and around Sydney Olympic Park, there are no statues there. They have a park opposite Stadium Australia named after Cathy Freeman. And quite a few streets named after a few Olympians. The State Sports Centre up the road was used for Netball comps, before moving to the Ken Rosewall (tennis) Centre in recent years. But nothing for any of the Netball World Cups is placed there, that i know of.
A mural for the Matilda’s is a nice touch, and i think more murals/ statues/ plaques is needed for Olympic Park for all sports.
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Who cares about this blowhard.
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His hugging and lifting players up onto him seemed a bit over the top too.
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