Already the biggest AFL club in Australia, powerhouse Collingwood is poised to have the same effect on the new national netball league.
With an all-Australian competition replacing the current ANZ Championship trans-Tasman league next year, the Collingwood-backed team is one of three new franchises to join the five current Australian sides.
NRL club Melbourne are behind another to be based on the Sunshine Coast where their feeder sides play, and the other is a joint initiative by Netball NSW and the Greater Western Sydney AFL side.
The as yet unnamed Collingwood side will be based in the same state-of-the-art training facility as their AFL team.
Chief executive Gary Pert said while he wanted the netball team to succeed, he didn't want it to be at the expense of their cross-town rivals the Melbourne Vixens.
"We've got over a million supporters and we've got 80,000 members ... we'd like to think we'll end up with a strong supporter base but there will be plenty of people going against us and I hope that's the case because that's what creates rivalries," Pert said.
"We'll compete with the Vixens but also work together to grow the game."
Pert says he's learnt lessons from AFL's expansion but feels it's a very different situation as the AFL moved into areas where the sport wasn't a stronghold.
"It's already the most popular women's sport in Victoria, we've already got players and coaches coming to us," he said.
"I would go as far to say it's nearly the opposite of what the AFL has done."
Pert said the netball team, along with a bid to join the new women's AFL competition next year, had been eight years in the making.
He said the club looked to European giants such as Barcelona football club.
"We thought about the future and painted a picture of a more diverse community club," he said.
"We have modelled ourselves off the big European community clubs so now we'll end up with an AFL team, a VFL team, a netball team and hopefully a women's AFL team and that creates that diversity."
Pert said details such as the name and colours were still to be finalised but they wouldn't stray far the black and white.
"There will be a Collingwood element in the branding, marketing and look of the side; that's pretty obvious," he said.
"We'll share the facilities and the coaches and techniques and ideas so there will a lot of cross-pollination."
Share
