Growth in Popularity

Netball is a popular participant sport in Australia and New Zealand, mostly among women (in country areas a netball competition is usually arranged to coincide with the local football league). However, men's and mixed teams are becoming popular, as the fundamentals of the game are easy for new players to learn, and men and women can compete with each other on reasonably fair terms as the restrictions on defence prevent men's superior strength and size gaining an overly large advantage.

The women's game has an elite international competition, with Australia and New Zealand undoubtedly the world's strongest teams; however, despite a growing club competition, only two of the current Australian team are full-time netballers. New Zealand finally broke an Australian stranglehold on major titles, after a heartbreaking run of near-misses, with a 49-47 win in the 2003 World Championship final in Jamaica. A 3-0 series win over Australia in New Zealand in the winter of 2004 continued the ascendancy.

Whilst not attracting much public attention, there are representative men's netball teams. On occasions, trial matches between national men's and women's teams have been arranged, with the men usually coming off victorious because of their height advantage.

Netball is a common sport in British schools. Both girls' and mixed matches are played; boys' netball is rather less common.