Australia men's national netball team

Australia

National federation	Australian Men's and Mixed Netball Association
Coach	Nerida Stewart
Nickname(s)	Kelpies
First Alternative

The Australia men's national netball team represents the Australian Men's and Mixed Netball Association in international men's netball competitions, including the Trans-Tasman Cup, played against New Zealand, and the Men's Fast5 Netball World Series. During the 2020s, Trans-Tasman Cup matches have acted as curtain raisers for Constellation Cup matches, while the Men's Fast5 Netball World Series' have been played alongside the women's series. They were formerly nicknamed the Sonix, however since 2023 they have been rebranded as the Kelpies.

Tournament history

Trans-Tasman Cup

Since 1985, Australia Men and New Zealand Men have played each other in a Trans Tasman series. The series have featured both open and under-23 tournaments. ^{[1] [2] [3]} In the 2020s these matches began to be televised. The 2022 Trans-Tasman Cup series acted as a curtain raiser for the 2022 Constellation Cup. On 12 October 2022, at Auckland's Spark Arena, Australia Men defeated New Zealand Men 64–48 in the first men's televised Trans-Tasman match. ^{[4] [5] [6]} Ahead of the 2023 series, the Australia Men were given a new nickname, the Kelpies, named after the Australian Kelpie. ^{[3] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]} They were previously known as the Australian Sonix. ^{[3] [10] [11] [12] [13]}

Tournaments	Place
2018 Trans-Tasman Cup [6] [14] [15]	1st
2022 Trans-Tasman Cup [4] [5] [6] [16]	1st
2023 Trans-Tasman Cup [7] [9] [10] [11] [17]	1st
2024 Trans-Tasman Cup [18] [19] [20] [21]	1st

Australia England series

On 30 October 2022, Australia Men defeated England Men 73–27. This was England's debut international test. The match was played before the second test of the 2022 Australia England women's series and was televised. ^{[22] [23] [24] [25] [26]}

Tournaments	Place
2022 Australia England series [25] [26]	1st
2025 England Australia series [27]

Men's Fast5 Netball World Series

Since 2022, Australia Men have played in the Men's Fast5 Netball World Series. ^[28] Australia won the 2024 series after defeating New Zealand 32–30 in the final. ^[29] Australia's pre-match dance to NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye saw them widely viewed on social media. However, this also led to homophobic abuse. Channel 7 had to limit the comments on their social media posts of the video. ^{[3] [30] [31] [32]}

Tournaments	Place
2022 Men's Fast5 Netball World Series [33] [28]	2nd
2023 Men's Fast5 Netball World Series [34] [35]	2nd
2024 Men's Fast5 Netball World Series [29]	1st

Notable players

Captains

	Years
Junior Levi [36] [37]	2014
Will Jamison [12]	2016
Dan Ryan [38] [39]	201x
Levi Talolua [40]	2018
Andrew Simons [13]	2019
Dylan Nexhip [4] [9]	2022, 2023
Brodie Roberts [33]	2022

Coaches

Head coaches

Coach	Years
Dave Mills [41]	2013
Christina Puopolo [12]	2016
Kimberly Kiely [40]	2018
Nerida Stewart [9] [18] [33]	2022–

Assistant coaches

Coach	Years
Julie Fitzgerald [18]	2024

References

1. Peter Turk. "History of Men's Netball". International Mens and Mixed Netball Challenge Cup. Archived from the original on 18 October 2021. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
2. "History". www.sammna.com.au. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
3. "Australian men's team cops backlash for Fast5 Netball dance". www.abc.net.au. 12 November 2024. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
4. "Men's netball brought out from 'behind closed doors' in landmark series". www.theguardian.com. 11 October 2022. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
5. "NZ Men to play in Constellation Cup curtain raiser". netballnz.co.nz. October 2022. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
6. "Australia overcome NZ Men in televised clash". netballnz.co.nz. 12 October 2022. Archived from the original on 15 April 2024. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
7. "Men's Double Header Matches Added to Constellation Cup". netball.com.au. 10 August 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
8. "Kelpies Unleashed". www.ammna.com.au. 28 August 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
9. "2023 Kelpies Named". www.ammna.com.au. 29 August 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
10. "Victoria's elite male netballers return to court in televised Trans-Tasman Cup". vic.netball.com.au. 10 October 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
11. "Netballers prepare to defend trans-Tasman titles amid distracting CPA negotiations". www.abc.net.au. 12 October 2023. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
12. "Victorian men dominate world stage". vic.netball.com.au. 9 November 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
13. "Why playing men's netball teams can be a double-edged sword". www.theguardian.com. 21 March 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
14. "Men's netball rejected by governing body". www.rnz.co.nz. 7 November 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
15. "Men's Netball: Two wrongs make two wrongs". www.rnz.co.nz. 29 November 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
16. "Australian Men's side claim historic win". vic.netball.com.au. 20 October 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2025.
17. "10 things we learned about the 2023 Trans-Tasman Series". netballscoop.com. 29 October 2023. Archived from the original on 29 November 2023. Retrieved 8 February 2025.
18. "Men's Trans-Tasman Cup back in netball spotlight". netballnz.co.nz. October 2024. Retrieved 8 February 2025.
19. "Trans-Tasman Series Wrap". netballscoop.com. 3 November 2024. Archived from the original on 8 December 2024. Retrieved 8 February 2025.
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21. "Australia overpower Net Blacks to claim series clean sweep". netballnz.co.nz. 30 October 2024. Archived from the original on 5 November 2024. Retrieved 8 February 2025.
22. "The Thorns, England Men's National Team, set to play first international fixture against Australia". www.englandnetball.co.uk. 3 August 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
23. "England Thorns: The men's netball team ready to face Australia Men live on Sky Sports". www.skysports.com. 3 August 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
24. "England's inaugural men's netball team prepare for first game". www.bbc.co.uk. 25 October 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
25. "NS Scoreboard: Australia v England Men's test match". netballscoop.com. 1 November 2022. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
26. "Aussie Men's side flex muscles against England". vic.netball.com.au. 2 November 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
27. "England Thorns v Australian Kelpies". www.englandmmna.com. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
28. "NZ Men claim historic FAST5 World Netball Series win". fast5netball.com. 6 November 2022. Archived from the original on 7 November 2022. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
29. "NZ Men claim silver at FAST5 Netball World Series". fast5netball.com. 10 November 2024. Archived from the original on 24 January 2025. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
30. "Aussie men's netball team stuns with pre-match dance". www.news.com.au. 9 November 2024. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
31. "Netball dance sparks worst kind of reaction as clip goes viral". www.news.com.au. 13 November 2024. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
32. "Triple M host called out for labelling men's netball dance 'disgusting'". www.news.com.au. 19 November 2024. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
33. "Match Programme" (PDF). fast5netball.com. 6 November 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 November 2022. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
34. "Net Blacks secure back-to-back FAST5 crown". fast5netball.com. 12 November 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
35. "New Zealand Secure Second Straight Men's FAST5 Netball World Series Crown". World Netball. 12 November 2023. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
36. "(Queensland Suns) Hall of Fame". sunshinestatenetball.wordpress.com. Archived from the original on 9 August 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
37. "How the 2.14m NZ men's goal shoot Junior Levi came to love playing netball". stuff.co.nz. 28 June 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
38. "Dan Ryan returns to Australia as the new West Coast Fever netball head coach". www.abc.net.au. 6 September 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
39. "Dan Ryan". westcoastfever.com.au. Archived from the original on 8 September 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
40. "Maleos take on Sonix". www.thenational.com.pg. 30 August 2018. Archived from the original on 30 August 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
41. "Aussie netball team to play local champions". www.dailytelegraph.com.au. 6 September 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2025.