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Australian netball is in sudden turmoil, with players suggesting strike action is on the table as early as this weekend.
The lid has been blown off a simmering feud over the make-up of the Netball Australia board.
The launch of Super Netball a few months ago promised a new start for the sport, but tensions between the state associations and the Players' Association (PA) now threaten the harmony of the competition.
The players are furious about the quiet dumping of Anne Marie Corboy as Netball Australia chair a few weeks ago, and as a director last week.
They believe there is a plan to oust former international Kathryn Harby-Williams from the board at this week's Netball Australia AGM.
Bianca Chadwick from the PA said she thought the state associations were worried about losing control.
"I think it's about power. There's a lot of uneasiness that has gone on in the last two years in the creating of this Super Netball comp and people want to gain back more control," Ms Chadwick told the ABC.
Players are worried state associations want to stack the Netball Australia board because they have lost players and some control to three new clubs in the league.
If that happens, strike action is on the table.
"It's the last resort we want to take, but its just something the player group are really passionate about and really determined to take a stance and be united," Ms Chadwick said.
"The players think we need a board that is independent that has skills more than just the game of netball."
Netball Queensland President Jane Seawright is adamant the associations, or member organisations, just want what is best.
"I think the players have probably been misinformed," she said.
"It has been said that we are seeking to take control and to have more influence on the board. That's actually not the case at all, we just want the best.
"It concerns me because I think the players are being used as unwitting pawns in something which appears to me to be a rather worrying attack on the rights of the members to exercise their democratic rights to elect directors."
And the club chief fiercely rejected suggestions that there will be any rollback of conditions for the players.
"That's something that has been fed in these stories quite mischievously, and if the players are upset I'm very concerned about that," Ms Seawright said.
Topics: netball, sport, australia
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