NETBALL Victoria will release the findings of a state-wide review of its sport early next month.

The organisation commissioned the review late last year and has received a draft copy of the recommendations.

Acting chief executive officer Russell James said the NV board would consider the recommendations at its February meeting, and would release them to the public in March.

Mr James said an independent organisation was completing the review and had highlighted a need to place more resources in country Victoria.

“Fifty per cent of our membership base is in country Victoria but we’re a very centralised organisation,” he said.

“We’ve been aware of that for a couple of years but we’ve had to make sure we had the platform in place to build on.

“That’s saying we need to have some staff out in country Victoria, which we do agree with.

“What we need to work through is what does that look like and how do we do it? What are their roles, what do they do, how do we fund that?

“That’s something that will be a key focus for us going forward. We recognise we need an increased presence in the field.”

Mr James said NV pre-empted calls to better resource country Victoria, and hoped to have regional managers for each of its six zones by the end of 2013.

Colac district is a part of a Central West Zone, which stretches from Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs to Colac.

“These people are not going to be out there running coaching or umpiring programs,” Mr James said.

“They’re going to be more strategic in terms of facilities, in terms of participation and local government relations,” he said.

“What we want to avoid is someone having a portfolio of metro and country. We don’t want people based in the country to have the added burden of metro.”

NV will have briefing sessions for each of its zones to distribute the recommendations and give associations and clubs a chance to comment.

“We’ll be promoting the positive aspects of the report but we won’t hide behind the challenges,” Mr James said.

Tags: Netball