2025 survey

We recently put out a survey asking for member feedback and input to help guide us in future season planning.

We wanted to share with you, our members some of the responses.

Thankyou to the 110 people who took the time to complete it

Question three: What is your reason for your decision for 2026:

We love that you love playing, that you want to be a better player, that you loved your team and your club, loved watching your daughter and loved being part of a committee. These were all common responses to the What is your reason for your decision in 2026.

Question five:  Senior netball has been played on Thursday and Friday evenings for season 2024 and season 2025, what days would you prefer to play in2026? Please select 2 days.

Overwhelmingly respondents want Thursday and Friday night games.
Some of the responses did ask if we could play all games on a Friday night. It is something our ENA committee has discussed over the years, unfortunately due the size of our association and number of volunteers and umpires it just isn’t possible at this time.
For one night to happen we need to:
1. Double our umpire and volunteer (club reps, coaches etc) numbers – many play and we can’t ask them to give up playing for another role.
2.  Look at 9pm games – Asking our volunteers to be at the stadium for a minimum 5 hours and previous feedback over the years has indicated that the majority of players are not keen on playing at 9pm
3. Look at having two clubs on duty every round to cover two stadiums and therefore doubling club’s responsibilities throughout the season.

Did you know that playing Days and Times are kept as even as possible for each team while still taking into account every player who is also a coach? 2025 saw only two player coach clashes out of 204 games for the season.

The fixturing committee work the schedule to make sure teams can utilize lower division players for fill-ins. For clubs with multiple teams in a division at least one lower team was always available. EG: United 3 & 4 in division 3, always had either United 5 or 6 at a different time slot, and therefore could utilize for fill-ins.

Fixturing has been experimenting with AI for the last few seasons, but is yet to find the sweet spot. If anyone has skills in this area or just wants to learn or help out, please reach out.

Q8 Do you have any specific feedback about the Junior competition?
There were many comments around the J1 competition, we know that numbers fluctuate each year, therefore it’s difficult to see how this will look into 2026.  By giving year 12s the option to play juniors we see older girls offer mentoring to younger players it also allows players to still play without having to play Seniors.

 2025 saw the change in how junior players are placed in a division. Previously as players division was decided on their birthyear, this year it moved to ‘School Years’ to allow players to play with their friends – a request that has made over and over.
Our ENA Junior committee have read your responses, with the majority of people liking the change or being unaffected by it.
In order to truly see if something works or doesn’t work it needs to be trialled for more than one season. ‘School years’ will return in 2026 to give the Junior Sub-committee some opportunity to gauge how this will look into the future.

Q9 What can Esperance Netball Association do to get more Senior players umpiring?
A lot of responses mentioned paying umpires more, and while we think our umpires do deserve every dollar and then some, we then have to ask players and clubs do you have the capacity to afford further increase in Association and/or Club fees to cover the increased cost of umpiring?  All payments under Honorarium are reviewed during pre season planning and umpiring will be considered by the 2026 committee at this time.

Courses were also mentioned in several comments and while our Facebook and Instagram posts may not have reached your algorithms this year (add us to your favourites) we are working on more courses for 2026 and posters for the stadium.

Q10 Development of Coaches, Athletes and Umpires is an important part of Netball.
What would you like to see run in order to improve development across the Association?
We hear your suggestions; our ADO and AUDO hear your suggestions.
You want player training opportunities, and you want coach mentoring.
Our ADO and AUDO will need your help to make this happen.
We need experienced players and coaches who can spare some time early in the season to mentor and train our up-and-coming coaches, players and umpires.

And of course, funding to get Netball WA here! We get one visit per year from NWA, this will be well advertised, if you have time it’s always beneficial to take the opportunity to be involved in their upskilling visits.

Q11 What do you think worked really well during season 2025?
A brief summary of the most common responses:
- Thursdays and Fridays (the top comment!)
- Being back in EIS (a close second!)
- Socials and Photos ( 😉 )
- The canteen
- Women’s Health and Mental Health rounds
- Committee and Volunteers   
- Fixtures and time slots
- Making the Grandfinals
- Panel Umpires

Q12 When considering the Senior Competition, what do you think could be improved?

- The awards night We hear You! Let’s not have it on Grand Final night!
But for when to have the responses were split; respondents suggested the week before or in the stadium straight after Grandfinals. Talk to your club ENA committee member, that way they can be advocating for your club members when the 2026 committee make this decision in planning.  We always want people to want to come along and have a good time.

- Game Day and Times
Responses asked for 5pm and 6:30pm games and 6pm and 7:45pm Games
If Games were held at 5pm or 7:45pm it would put pressure on everyone.
Can everyone finish work earlier? Can you make 5pm if you’re travelling from Salmon Gums or Beaumont? Can (and should) our volunteers spend a further 15 minutes at the stadium?
(Our ENA reps leave most nights after 9pm)

- Grading
Did you know that the 2025 ENA Executive, Club Presidents and Grading reps have had multiple meetings, spending several hours in discussions this year to work through Grading options into the future? Reponses from the survey were mixed on this and we would like to ask that anyone who has further feedback or missed the survey to please speak with your club’s president. Our new committee will hold a 2026 planning meeting later in the year. At this point we have a plan for 2026 to keep the competition fun and fair, but this will be finalised in planning.

Question 13: Do you have any additional feedback

While some of the feedback was suggestions were already made in other areas of the survey, this was also where we saw a lot of positive comments and gratitude for the ENA Committee and what goes on behind the scenes.  Thank you all for this, a lot of hard work does go in to run a season, and we do it for the love of the game.