By Braedan Jason

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It has been almost 10 years since the Sunshine Coast Lightning, the region’s first and only national professional sports team, started making a name for itself in the Super Netball league, and registrations have surged as a result.

Sunshine Coast Netball Association operations officer Gabrielle Firth-Taylor says there has been a 25 per cent increase in registrations since 2016.

“Back then we were looking at under 2,000 registrations for our junior fixtures and now we’re at like 2,500,” she said.

Super Netball is one of the biggest female codes in the country and total attendance for the 2025 season was 386,455 — the most in the league’s history.

The Lightning experienced enormous success in its first five seasons — there were three consecutive grand final appearances and back-to-back premierships in 2017 and 2018.

Following the retirement of Steph Fretwell, Cara Koenen is the last remaining player from the inaugural season in 2016.

“I think it comes back to that old saying that if you can see it, you can be it,” Koenen said.

“I would like to think that a lot of regional athletes – not even from the Sunshine Coast, but from all the way across north Queensland – see us and think that it doesn’t just take you moving to Sydney or Melbourne to follow a dream.”

A fan’s dream comes true

This year 19-year-old mid-courter Baylee Boyd became the first local junior to progress through the Sunshine Coast netball Heart Premier League and make her Lightning debut.

Boyd, who stands at 173 centimetres, dreamt of wearing the purple and gold since she was 10 years old.

“Coming into the Lightning environment for the first time as a training partner was so surreal, to actually be passing the ball with … all those big-name girls and to have them as my teammates is so cool,” she said.

Boyd was a Queensland Firebirds fan, but with Brisbane more than an hour from home she might have given the sport away if the Lightning had not come to town.

“With all those other commitments with school sport, with school, with work, with other sports … I think if I didn’t have it available to me at home, it could have been one of those things that I just kind of drifted away from,” she said.

“Even having to commute to Brisbane for state rep teams and all that, it really takes a massive toll and I think now I feel so lucky to have training, uni, work, my family all on the Sunshine Coast.”

‘Pay us what you owe us’

The pay gap between male and female athletes made international headlines this year after Women’s National Basketball Association players wore shirts reading “pay us what you owe us” during collective bargaining negotiations.

Last week Netball Australia and the players’ association reached an agreement on a landmark deal that will see players receive a share of the Australian Diamonds sponsorship, broadcast and event proceeds secured by the sport’s governing body.

Under the three-year deal, Diamonds players will receive pay increase of approximately 40 per cent.

Koenen, the vice-president of the Australian Netball Players’ Association, said the success of the Matildas showed investment in women’s sports could pay off.

“The marketability of these sports is completely untapped and you do need some level of investment … to be able to grow the sport, to be able to bring in more revenue,” she said.

“People you speak to are really, really shocked and surprised when you tell them that you’re either working or studying almost in a part-time capacity as well as trying to support a professional career playing sport.

“We want people to get on board and we want people to come along for the ride with us because I have all the faith in the world and you’re starting to see it now, through the Matildas journey, that you’ll reap the benefits down the road.”

The Sunshine Coast Falcons rugby league club is following in the footsteps of the Melbourne Storm’s owners and creating a netball club.

The Melbourne Storm group became the sole owner of the Lightning in 2024.

The team is being supported by the University of the Sunshine Coast and Sunshine Coast Council.

“We’ve already got 90 or up to 100 players registered as an expression of interest, so that’s nine, 10 or 11 teams already,” Sunshine Coast Falcons chief executive Chris Flannery said.