After decades of quietly minding its own business, netball is determined to be seen.
While the sport will always respect its heritage, it has built on a hugely successful Super Netball season with its new global audiences, to usher in a new era at the 2027 Netball World Cup brand launch in Sydney on Friday. In unveiling Brace Yourself, the tournament’s marque identity showcases contemporary branding and bold designs.
Absent were corporate polos or playing dresses worn over goose-pimpled flesh, with the five attending athletes decked out in edgy streetwear against a backdrop of Sydney’s iconic harbour. Instead, there was vivid First Nations’ artwork and a huge sense of excitement about the sport’s direction.
Netball Australia and the World Cup’s Local Organising Committee (LOC) Chair, Liz Ellis OA, said, “In the past we haven’t blown our trumpet enough.
“We haven’t got out there and promoted and said this is what we do, this is who we are and actually, this is what we want.
“We have been served incredibly by administrators over the past 100 years but something I’m really keen to do is build on that work by being far more vocal about our aspirations, about our ambitions, about what we expect both of ourselves and of our supporters, our partners, government.
“It’s about stepping into our power. We’ve always had this enormous power as the number one sport for women and girls in this country.
“We need to make sure we are shouting it from the rooftops and we are capitalising on it.”
As Chair of Netball Australia and the LOC of the World Cup, Liz Ellis will have a busy couple of years. Netball World Cup 2027 launch. Image: May Bailey-Ireland/Clusterpix
Developing a unique identity for the 2027 World Cup was a priority for recently appointed Chief Operating Officer Mark Falvo. The genius behind the bid for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and its enduring legacy, Falvo believes netball has helped shape Australian society.
Speaking at Friday’s launch, the highly experienced sports administrator said, “This is a sport that speaks to women’s empowerment and gender equality.
“There’s a lot that can be done to continue to grow the sport, accelerate that growth, bring new fans to the game, but also to have that social impact in the form of continuing to empower women the way that netball has done for the best part of one hundred years now, and is uniquely placed to do so in the future.”
While the 2027 World Cup will play a key role in Australia’s celebration of its 100th year in the sport, recent strides that should make the tournament its most successful iteration yet.
Netball Australia’s flagship Super Netball competition includes the cream of local and international talent, whose speed, strength and athleticism has attracted new global audiences this season. Broadcast by Fox Sport, streaming partnerships with the All Women’s Sports Network (AWSN), Inverleigh, Netball Pass and Pacific Aus TV, sees Super Netball now transmitted to over 120 countries with a reach of more than 300 million people. While the most recent deals were announced late in the 2025 season, viewer numbers were still over five million people.
Stacey Francis-Bayman, Athlete Director for World Netball, believes the 2027 World Cup can capitalise on the sport’s growing popularity, saying the event will be ‘incredible.’
“What’s exciting is that all games are going to be played in one venue which means the production, the experience for fans in the stadium, is going to be sky high.
“It’s definitely going to be something to tune into if you can’t get here in person and I expect the viewership and numbers to be through the roof, because the Netball World Cup 2027 is going to be like one we’ve never seen before.”
Stacey Francis-Bayman (Athlete Director for World Netball, far left) and Mark Falvo (COO, Netball World Cup, far right) will both play key roles in the delivery of the 2027 Netball World Cup. Netball World Cup 2027 launch. Image: May Bailey-Ireland/Clusterpix
Central to the branding unveiled at the launch is the collaborative artwork between Ginny Jones and First Nations creative agency, YarnnUp Collective. The “Country Calls” motif invites the netball world to gather on Wangal country, where culture will meet the court and resilience under pressure will be tested.
Jones, a proud Gomeroi and Kooma woman, said, “Being part of this project has been incredibly meaningful – to see First Nations culture celebrated on such a global stage through the Netball World Cup is powerful.
“When people see this artwork, I want them to feel that electric energy of game day – the crowd, the tension of a tied score, the pure joy when your team clicks.
“That’s what Country Calls is all about – celebrating how netball connects us all.”
Falvo elaborated further, saying, “There’s a rich back story to the First Nations artwork that underpins this, that we wanted to bring to the fore.
“This is an Australian hosted Netball World Cup, there’s a really important story to tell around our First Nations history, but as we’ll see over the course of the next two years, we want this to be a really inclusive Netball World Cup, including all the different cultures, not just of the other 15 teams, but all of the diversity in the Australian community as well.”
The collaborative artwork of Ginny Jones and YarnnUp Collective featured at the launch can be seen around the athletes – from left to right Shimona Jok (Jamaica), Kate Moloney (Australia), Liz Watson (Australia), Sunday Aryang (Australia) and Mary Cholhok (Uganda). Image: May Bailey-Ireland/Clusterpix
Netball royalty was at the launch. Marcia Ella-Duncan (second from right) was the first Indigenous woman to represent the Diamonds, while Ali Tucker-Munro (far left) was the first First Nations woman to coach at Super Netball level, and a former Diamonds squad member. Image: May Bailey-Ireland/Clusterpix
With 16 nations from around the globe set to participate in the event, Diamonds’ captain Liz Watson agreed that the artwork perfectly encapsulates Australia’s approach to hosting the World Cup. “We want to embrace all the different cultures that will be here, and all the different countries, but then also showcasing our culture and the First Nations artworks.
“It’s part of our netball DNA now.”
Goal shooter Mary Cholhok, one of five athletes at the launch, knows firsthand how netball connects people around the globe. As a child refugee, she escaped civil war in South Sudan and fled to Uganda, later relocating to England to play netball and undertake a university degree in Business Administration.
Now playing for both Uganda and the Queensland Firebirds as an import in Super Netball, Cholhok said, “As an athlete, I want to create an impact as much as I can, to use my voice more and inspire people to feel that we all have a belonging in the sport. It’s so good to see it bringing different communities together.”
In a sign of how netball is starting to gain global recognition, Sunday Aryang was recently appointed as a Nike Brand Ambassador and collaborated with their Future Runway Collection. The young defender became Australia’s first African-born Diamond, after her family relocated from Ethiopia to Australia when she was just two.
Brace Yourself’s appeal to wider audiences has Aryang’s seal of approval. She said at the launch, “Coming in today and seeing the branding, it feels very modern, very bold. I think it’s a great example of what the 2027 World Cup will be. It looks amazing.”
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The Netball World Cup will feature 64 matches from the 25th August to the 5th September, 2027 at Sydney Olympic Park. The world’s top nations will vie for the Cup and a newly introduced Plate, with current title holders Australia hoping to retain their crown.
For further information about the draw, venue, ticketing, hospitality and tour packages, sign up at www.nwc2027.com or follow @NetballWorldCup on Facebook and Instagram.
Netball World Cup 2027 launched it’s ‘Brace Yourself’ brand identity at Campbells Cove on September 05, 2025 Sydney, Australia (Photo by May Bailey-Ireland/Clusterpix via Netball Scoop)
