Commonwealth Bank Trophy

The Commonwealth Bank Trophy is the elite national competitition in Australian netball. It was established in 1997 as a true national league to replace the ailing, state club-based Mobil League. Designed from the beginning to be more marketable to the general public, it has seen large increases in crowd sizes and sponsorship over its predecessor.

Related Topics:
Australia - Netball - 1997 - Mobil League

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The Trophy is an eight-team, single division round-robin competition, based around a fourteen week season starting in May and ending in August. The top four teams play off in a knockout finals series, culminating in the Grand Final in the first week of September. While crowd turnout falls short of that in the three football codes, matches are generally attended by several thousand people and growing, with a record crowd of 13,436 being achieved in 2004. This has necessitated a shift to larger venues, with smaller suburban venues of earlier years having to be abandoned in favour of larger city arenas. A significant number of games are shown both on free-to-air ABC TV and on pay television.

Related Topics:
Round-robin - May - August - September - 2004 - ABC TV

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While the Commonwealth Bank Trophy is an elite competition, it lacks the attention and sponsorship of the three main football codes. This means that there is not the money to pay high player wages - indeed, according to Australian Workers Union National Secretary Bill Shorten, many earn less than $4,000 a year from the sport. This means that the vast majority of players - including most of those in the Australian team - must juggle training and game requirements with part-time or full-time employment, and must raise their own funds if they are to afford added assistance such as the services of a physiotherapist. In an attempt to address this somewhat, most players in the competition made the decision to join the Australian Workers Union in late 2005.

Related Topics:
Australian Workers Union - Bill Shorten - 2005

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